Miller Co. Autogram November 30, 1931
  Squire John Ferguson of Iberia, who is now nearing his 92nd birthday,
came to Miller county on a steamboat when he was 14 years old.  Born in
Scotland, the family made St. Louis their home.
   He stepped out as a man when only 12 years of age by hiring as a
deck-sweeper on a Mississippi river packet, plying between St. Louis and
New Orleans.
    He came up the Osage river on the Thomas E Tuck, a big side wheel
packet.  The monster boat had no trouble in getting up the Osage, but
the river took a sudden fall and there was difficulty in getting back to
the
Missouri river.
    The Thomas E. Tuck was owned by Tom and Bill Dozier, who later
became owners of the Dozier bakery in St. Louis.  One was pilot and  the
other held a position as mate.  When the boat attempted to go under the
bridge near Osage city on this fateful trip up the Osage, the boat
rammed its side into a pier, taking off the smoke-stack, and a whole
side of the boat, leaving the contents of the dining room and kitchen
open to view.  Everything was consternation and it looked like the boat
was  headed for the bottom of the river.  Mr. Ferguson says, " I jumped
into  the river to save my life."
    Another incident of steamboat days which he related was a trip he
made before the civil war on the St.. Falls City,  When they left New
Orleans for St. Louis they had on a cargo of coffee and brandy and at
the mast- head was flying the Confederate flag.  This was just at the
beginning of the war, and Mr. Ferguson and about a dozen more of the
boys were anxious to get back to St. Louis.
    At Memphis, the steamer left them stranded, and they decided to
make the balance of the trip in a row-boat.  They started out with  some
provisions and a supply of brandy which river men always found
"necessary" in those days.  After proceeding up the river a distance
they made camp on an island.
     While preparing their meal, the St.. Kentucky came by.  The pilot,
was a friend of Mr. Ferguson, hailed them and wanted to know what they
were doing there.  They advised the pilot that they were going home. He
told them that they could get no farther than Hickman as a blockade had
been established.  He agreed to assist them through the lines, and after
they clambered onto the steamer, the pilot locked them up in a  room.
When a search was made for contraband, the pilot told the searchers that
he had some prisoners locked up in the room.  This sufficed and the
boys were happy when informed they were through the lines. They
disembarked from the steamer and proceeded on their own resources for
St. Louis.
     Later, Mr. Ferguson enlisted in the Union army and served
throughout the conflict.  He is one of the very few living veterans of
the civil war.