Ferguson Features

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  • Ferguson Features
    Ferguson Features
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During this difficult time, the Friends of The Ferguson would like to wish everyone safety and wellness. Our Easter Egg Hunt will be canceled and the Mother's Day Tea will be postponed.

While Museums are not considered essential, I am doing work from home on digitizing research materials such as pictures and documents that will become available at a later date. I also will be checking in on the museum, mail, voicemail, and email regularly.

Today's picture is of Elva Ursula Shartel Ferguson. She was born on April 6, 1869, and married T.B. shortly after her 16th birthday on June 9, 1885. She had 5 children, Walter Scott, Rowena, Thompson Shartel (Trad), Norma, and Elfa.

Elva and T.B. made 3 of the 7 land runs of Oklahoma. The 3rd and final trip being in late September of 1892 arriving in the already established town of Watonga on October 1st. The couple founded the Watonga Republican and Mrs. Ferguson even had her turn at writing editorials while T.B. was governor and also after his passing in 1921 for another 9 years until she sold the newspaper. Edna Ferber, the author of Cimarron, based her main characters after Elva and T.B. and when the book was made into a motion picture, Elva went to Hollywood to be a technical advisor for the scenes involving the newspaper equipment. In 1937, she published her own novel called They Carried the Torch about Oklahoma pioneer newspapers. She was also very active in civic and political groups such as the Watonga Women's Self Culture Club, Watonga Public Library, and the Oklahoma Republican party. After her time at the Watonga Republican she did a lot of traveling in Europe. In 1933 she was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame and in 1946 she was named Oklahoma's Mother of the Year.