In the last few months of serving the community as site director of the Ferguson Museum I have been on a journey of discovery of this pioneer Watonga family. Recently a volunteer brought to my attention T.B. Ferguson’s February 1921 obituary in the Watonga Republican newspaper.
In the full-page obituary, I read about his passing at the hospital in Oklahoma City, his lying in State at the Capitol building and the government shutting down in respect.
The military stood guard as people passed showing their respects. I read the eulogies from S. P. Freeling, The Daily Oklahoman newspaper and others.
I read how his remains were escorted by the National Guard to the train station for its long ride back to Watonga and that he was placed in the first-floor parlor of his home until the next day when he was taken to the Methodist church down the street and to the Blaine County Courthouse to yet again lie in state.
I read that at all his stops from the Capitol to the Blaine County Courthouse hundreds of people came to pay their respects, people of all walks of life and without restriction.
He was escorted by the National Guard to the I.O.O.F. cemetery east of town, followed by a mass of mourners, to his final place of rest.
What is not easily read in the account is, “How does one person gain so much respect from politicians and the people”? “When has this happened since for another former Governor”?
I believe that history gives me at least one answer. It was his integrity, ethics and uncompromising will to keep his moral standards high.
In 1975 Jerry L. Gill wrote this about T.B. in the “ Chronicles of Oklahoma”. He was a reluctant politician and “Untouched by political scandal” when Teddy Roosevelt selected him for office… T.B. openly criticized the “Spoils system” where the party that wins hands out favors to those that helped them win. T.B. correctly observed that this practice opened the door to the “incompetent – both morally and intellectually’.
Gill also wrote that “T.B. pursued politics as an exercise in civic duty…. not as a means of personal enrichment”. This, I believe, is key to the public’s reaction to his passing. “Honest Tom,” T.B. was exactly that and Oklahoma knew it, both friend and foe.
I recently visited the Ferguson family plot. I found a wrought iron fence surrounding three gravestones, T.B. Ferguson, his wife Elva and their son Trad.
In the center of the plot is a broken flagpole, snapped in half. Once there was a plaque at the base of the pole but is now missing and the fence is holding back a forest of sand burrs.
Ferguson went to his grave with his integrity intact and left this world with a legacy we all should honor today as it was in 1921.
I now attend what was once his home, walk in the same rooms, look from the same windows but only gain glimpses of the man to whose name the museum is dedicated.