Ferguson Features

Two young men came by the museum Saturday. One of them grew up in Watonga and is now living in Alva. We are thankful that he came by to see the museum and brought a friend.

The wood burning cook stove has markings on it stating Grand Company, January 15, 1901. I’m assuming that is the name of the model and it was built around that time. On an antique website I found one a lot like the one we have and it was a Holzwarth. It looked like it possibly came from Sears. The one we have comes with a temperature gauge on the oven door, and a tank on the right side to put about 2 ½ gallons of water in so it could be heating; a form of hot water heater. It also had two warming ovens which would be similar to our microwaves, you could put food in there to stay warm or to re-warm. The engraving on one of the registers reads raise register and cereal will never burn. If you turn this register over one way or other supposedly your oatmeal or wheat cereal doesn’t burn. It would take a lot of experience to use the gauge on the oven or that register because once the wood gets to burning and has things heated up it would be hard to adjust the heat and keep it the temperature where you want it.

The Fergusons had five children, three girls and two boys. Two of the daughters passed away in their infancy before coming to Oklahoma Territory. The two sons came with them. One son lived to be old enough to enlist in WWI but passed away while stationed at Ft. Sill, Lawton, Oklahoma with the Spanish Flu. One daughter born after moving to Oklahoma passed away when she was about three years old. The one son grew to adulthood and at one time had a newspaper at Seiling, Oklahoma, and was into politics too. He lived back East when he passed away. Mrs. Ferguson outlived her husband and all five children.

About the only political office to be given out to party newspapers in 1897 in the territory was post master. It was the policy of the national administration to distribute these jobs to editors. Ferguson was appointed postmaster of Watonga by President McKinley. It was a fourth class office and his salary was based on the cancellation of stamps. The post office was in the same building with the newspaper and was taken care of by the editor’s family, giving him time for the newspaper and politics. He resigned after serving as postmaster for a couple of years because he felt like holding a federal office interfered with his political activities. He became a leader in the Blaine County Republican Party and in 1900 he was elected Chairman of the Republican Territorial Committee.

The work on the east side of the museum is going well. Drive by and look at the difference of the second floor and front porch. Clay has the second floor balcony scrapped and painted. A lot has been scrapped on front porch as well.

The next Ferguson Market will be this coming up Saturday, August 7, 2021 8:00 am to 12:00 pm. Hopefully we’ll have someone bring produce from their garden. Call 580-623- 5069 for more information or to reserve a spot. Be sure and leave name and call back number if you get the answering machine because we don’t have caller ID. Hopefully we will have a date for the next Tea soon. We have been waiting for the lady giving the presentation to fit us into her schedule

Ȯur hours are Wednesday thru Saturday, 10:00 am to 3:00 pm. We welcome volunteers in any capacity and anyone wanting to become a member of the Friends of the Ferguson Home Museum.

Louise Griffin

President of Friends of Ferguson Home Museum