Nelson Ferguson:
A Sketch of a Wisconsin Pioneer

Introduction

    Nelson Ferguson was born July of 1831 in Kingston, Upper Canada.  In 1831 the providence of Ontario had not yet been created, so the location today is called Kingston, Ontario, Canada.  He was born to Henry Ferguson and Lovina Winchell and was their oldest child.  There is little known about Nelson’s mother Lovina Winchell other than her name. 

    About 1844 his mother Lovina passes away.  It is about this time the family also moves back to New York State, where Nelson’s father Henry had been born.  The family settles in the Town of Hermon in St. Lawrence County, New York.  The town had just opened to settlement and one finds several family members moving there around this time period.  This includes Nelson’s grandparents.

    Nelson’s father Henry had been born in the Town of Western, Oneida County, New York in 1808 to Ambrose and Nancy Ferguson.  It is not known what Nelson’s grandmother Nancy’s maiden name was or what her origins were.  It looks as if his grandfather Ambrose was born in New York State to Peter and Mary of Half Moon, Saratoga County, New York.  Ambrose's mother Mary is thought to be of Dutch descent and his father Peter was most likely Scotch Irish descent.  Peter was a 2nd Lieutenant in the New York Militia, 3rd Company of the 12th Regiment during the Revolutionary War.

    Now Nelson would get a step mom as his father would get married to Margaret Mikle on October 6th, 1844.  At this time in history it was very common for a man with young children who would lose a wife to get remarried relatively quickly by today’s standards.  This was often done so the young children could have a mother to take care of them.  It was almost unheard of for a man to raise children as a single parent.  

    Nelson’s father would settle the family in town of Hermon and take up farming.  The family still lived there come 1850 with all the adult children still at home working on their parent’s farm, as is indicated in the census of that year.  It was the fall of 1854 that Nelson would find himself headed west as an early Wisconsin Pioneer with his family.  The area they settled just west of Auroraville in Warren Township, Waushara County, Wisconsin in the fall of 1854 according to land records.  The exact location where the first Ferguson farm in Wisconsin was can be found using land records.

    It was here in Warren that on January 1st of 1856 that Nelson Ferguson was married to neighbor girl Christina Morse.  She was the daughter of Anthony and Eliza (Desautels) Morse.  Like the Ferguson family, the Morse family had arrived in Warren about the same time in 1854.  The exact location where the Morse farm was located is not known, as the land records no longer exist to show the farm’s location.  We do know that the Morse family was in Warren in late 1854 because there are records for Christina’s older sister Mary who was married to John Mason (no relation to Rev. John Bucklin Mason) on Christmas of 1854 in Warren.

 Coming To Wisconsin

    The Ferguson family would travel with several other families and relatives from New York to settle in Central Wisconsin.  Their proximity to the great lakes makes it the likely route in which the family traveled to Wisconsin.  There were steam ships making this journey bringing settlers to Wisconsin since the 1830’s.  At the time the family made the trip to Wisconsin, there were about a dozen steamers traversing the Great Lakes.  One route was from Buffalo, New York to Fort Howard/Green Bay, Wisconsin.  The trip on average took six to eight days covering over eight hundred miles across the Great Lakes. From Fort Howard they could have taken a smaller steamship to Omro, a couple miles to the east of where they would settle.

    Nelson would come with and help farm as his parents set up homestead in the Town of Warren, Waushara County, Wisconsin.  Having an older child would have been a lot of help for a family trying to make it on the frontier.  There were many hardships on the frontier, with clearing the land being probably the hardest part of homesteading.  The slow process of stump removal often hindered the ability to get a successful crop during the first year of homesteading.  On average the second year of a homestead farm produced almost twice the yield of crops as they had that first year.

    As for homes and barns being built, this was not as hard as one may think.  Usually when something was needed to be built, neighbors would gather and build it in about three days.  In many ways the Amish continue this tradition today.  The structures were usually made up of logs and other rough cut timber with chimneys of stone or brick, depending on what was available.  Later as time and money permitted there would be improvements made to the structures.  This usually consisted of replacing the logs with stone or brick and dimensional cut lumber.  Very often they added onto the original structure using these better materials incorporating the original as part of a larger home.

    Land at that time was relatively inexpensive.  The counties had been surveyed and were divided into townships that were approximately thirty six square miles, which was divided into thirty six sections of one square mile/six hundred and forty acres.  Each section was divided into quarters of consisting of one hundred and sixty acres that then were further divided into four sections of forty acres.  It was in forty acre increments that homesteaders purchased or claimed the land in most cases.  The exception was if there was a river or lake located within the property which could make it less then forty acres.  The maximum a settler could purchase was also restricted to one hundred and sixty acres.

    Their farm was forty acres and situated to the south of Willow Creek and the Hamilton Mill Post Office.  This was two miles west of Auroraville and two miles east of present day Redgranite.  Any family member who has ever driven along the stretch of Wisconsin Highway 21 between Omro and Redgranite unknowingly has driven right past what was the first Ferguson farm in Wisconsin, which can be seen from Highway 21 today.  The property is to the north of Hwy 21 with eastern border of the property runs along 29th Lane, which crosses 21.  There are trees that line the road making it easy to see exactly where the farm was because these trees are the only ones in the entire area.

    Now about a half of a mile directly to the north was Nelson’s brother William’s farm.  William was married by this time and had a forty acre farm as well.  This was not the only relative that Nelson had nearby.  His Uncle Peter Ferguson (one of Henry’s older brothers) came with his family and settled in Omro a few miles to the East.  It is unsure if Peter came to settle in Wisconsin at the same time as his younger brother Henry did.  If they did not both come at the same time their arrivals in the area are very close in timing.  Peter can be found buried in a cemetery in Omro.  There were likely many more relatives that came at this time which currently are not known about.  It is thought that possibly two other siblings had also come to Wisconsin to stay a brief time before heading west as land on the great plains opened to settlement.

    The family did not stay long in the Town of Warren it was just over five years that they called Warren home, yet one could not say the stay was uneventful.  The biggest thing of course was his and Christina’s wedding on January 1st of 1856.  It is here on Nelson’s Marriage Certificate at this time which helps to give some interesting information found nowhere else.  Without this document, all that would be known is that he had been born somewhere in Canada (he has a Canadian birth certificate with it only listing July of 1831, his name and nothing else).  It is on his Wedding Certificate that for the first and only time we know where he was born.  Hit lists Kingston, Upper Canada as his place of birth.  This document is also how we know who his parents were for sure.  Without this document all one has is circumstantial evidence that Henry was Nelson’s father.  We also would have not known that Nelson’s mother was Lovina Winchell.

    This document also gives some surprising information.  Nelson was twenty four years of age when he married Christina.  There is nothing surprising for him being that age.  The age of his new bride Christina is what is most surprising.  All that’s known is she was born sometime in 1841.  Unless she was born on January 1st, she was still fourteen years old when they got married.  Even at that time in history, that would have been considered very young to marry.  Though it was more common on the frontier such as Wisconsin, then it was back east.  The rough life of a pioneer child at that time in history made them have to grow up a lot faster then they do today.

 Starting a Family

    On April 10th of 1856 that Nelson’s father Henry received the Land Patent for the forty acres in Warren.  After receiving this Henry would sell the farm in Warren eventually.  By the 1860 census, Nelson and Christina had moved and set up homestead in Grand Marsh, Township of Lincoln in Adams County, Wisconsin.  It is likely they followed their families as both sets of parents were their neighbors in Grand Marsh. The three farms were to the Northeast of town out where today County Highways M and G intersect in the Township of Lincoln.

    Nelson and Christina had their first two daughters by this time.  Ella was born about 1857 with Mary being born the following year.  Daughter Alice was born in 1863.  However their stay in Grand Marsh would be a brief one, as by the end of 1864 they had moved on once again.  However, it was in Grand Marsh that the Ferguson and Morse families became closer yet as a second set of children were wed.  Nelson’s younger sister Mary weds Christina’s older brother Andrew on Christmas of 1860.  Mary and Andrew would eventually head west like both of their parents did.  They settled the Minneapolis St. Paul area and many of Mary and Andrew’s descendants today still call the area around the Twin Cities home.  It was in Plainfield, Waushara County, Wisconsin that Nelson and Christina bought a farm on September 1st, 1864.  It was here in 1865 Christina and Nelson had Lester, their fourth child and first boy.  This was followed the next year with son Clinton being born in Plainfield in 1866 and with Henry eventually being born to Christina and Nelson there in 1869.

    The area around Plainfield had plenty of land for settling, but as Nelson and the other settlers to the area all quickly found out rather quick was that the soil was poor at the very best.  The soil was almost entirely sand.  Nelson’s farm in both Grand Marsh and Plainfield were typical sand farms.  The soil was made up mostly of sand and lacked when it came to the nutrients needed for growing good crops.  The sandy soil made the farms even more susceptible to drought.  This combination made it even harder for homesteaders and the reason why many farms eventually failed.  The reason for the sandy and poor soils of central Wisconsin was this area once was the lake bottom of “Glacial Lake Wisconsin”.  A sand farm a few miles to the south would be made famous by the book “A Sand County Almanac” written by Aldo Leopold.

    This made subsisting and raising a family from just farming very hard if not impossible.  Many who settled in and around Plainfield would take on a second calling to ensure their families success.  Those who did not were usually the ones who failed.  Nelson was known to work in a wagon shop.  There is speculation that this shop was on the Main Street of West Plainfield.  There is a building still standing today, that may have been the shop that Nelson worked in.  The shop is on the North West corner of Hwy 73 and 3rd Drive, just west of Interstate 39.  Other trades that Nelson was said to take on was that of a copper smith and even was said to try his hand with a grist mill.  It is unsure if he actually did try these things and if he did, how successful he was with those ventures.  The wagon shop is the only thing one finds there is evidence for him partaking in.

    Nelson’s father had a farm for a short period in Plainfield, but by the 1875 census, was back living in Lincoln Township, Adams County, Wisconsin.  Nelson’s father would eventually head west to settle in Royalton, Morrison County, Minnesota.  This is where Nelson’s Father Henry is buried in 1885.  The Morse family continued westward into Minnesota and later the Dakotas.  It is uncertain when they struck out for Minnesota.  Christina’s father Anthony would eventually settle and be buried in Lake County, South Dakota and would pass away on March 14th of 1891.  It is unknown when or where Christina’s mother Eliza would pass away and be buried. 

    By the 1870 census we find Nelson and Christina still homesteading in Plainfield.  It was sometime around 1871 that tragedy struck Nelson and his young family.  For reasons that are not known today, Christina passes away.  Today one can only speculate when she passed away and why.  Now this was a hard time for those who lived on the frontier.  One always had to worry about diseases and getting sick.  Many pioneers never got better and died. 

    Pioneers also had to worry about an accident while working on the homestead such as getting kicked by a horse, falling under a moving wagon or taking a bad fall for example.  Even if it was something that did not kill them right away, it could eventually bring on death.  An example of this was a family had their home catch fire during a winter storm.  Every family member made it out safely and unharmed.  Surviving the fire just fine, half the family would die sub coming to the weather during their journey to the nearest neighbor.  Life on a frontier homestead during this time was a hard one and very often it could prove to be deadly as well.

    One can also say it was even harder for the woman during this time period.  If those things were not enough, a woman could die during or from childbirth.  Research also reveals there is another lesser known, but almost as common killer for woman of this time period.  It was dying from being burned to death.  This happened when the woman’s clothes would catch fire while cooking or chores that required a proximity to fire in the home.  It was a deadly combination of the clothes that woman had to wear, the combustibility of these clothes and working constantly with fire in areas that provided little safety for them.

    Now the exact reason for Christina passing away remains a mystery today.  Was she in an accident of some sort?  Were there some complications from a pregnancy?  Or was it from one of the many epidemics happening around this time?  There were reoccurring epidemics of smallpox, scarlet fever, yellow fever, cholera, and typhoid just to name a few that happened at the approximate time of her passing, and any of them could have afflicted her.  What we do know is that Christina was laid to rest in Plainfield Cemetery.  There is no marker today to show today where she was laid to rest.  Either the stone was removed or she had a wooden cross that over time decayed away.  It was not uncommon for people at this time to have a wooden cross.  Many could not afford to have a stone marker.  Today the easiest way to locate where she’s laid to rest is from a Lilac that grows on the family’s plat in the cemetery today. 

Nelson’s Second Marriage

    Nelson would get remarried again to a woman named Margaret and it is thought that her maiden name may have been Wheelock.  She was born in New York before coming to Waushara County, Wisconsin.  Now, once again Nelson would get married to a much younger woman. Margaret was twenty years younger than Nelson was.  His oldest daughter was only six years younger then her new step mother.  Nelson would come to have one child with Margaret, a son named Orrin. 
Now when the year 1880 roles around; Nelson and his family are listed as living in the Township of Pine Grove, Portage County Wisconsin.  Nelson listed as working in a wagon shop.  It is not known where his farm was located in Pine Grove.

    Some of Nelson’s children stayed in Pine Grove; got married and started their own families during this time period.  Alice would be wed to Calvin Rogers.  Lester would be wed to Laura Culbertson and with Mary being wed to David Haskins.  Both Alice’s and Lester’s families lived on farms in Pine Grove by the 1900 census.  Mary’s husband David Haskins was a teacher for the area at this time.  Mary would eventually move to Ashland Wisconsin and is where she would marry her second husband Arthur Mead.  Mary and Arthur would eventually move to Washington State.  Clinton was also wed by this time to Anna Hursh, and they had already set out to homestead in the Iron River area of Bayfield County, Wisconsin in 1892.  Daughter Ella would marry Fred French in Ashland, Wisconsin and they eventually would move to Madison, Wisconsin.  Nelson’s son Henry would also move to Ashland and it is there where he married Lura Hursh.  Henry and Lura would eventually settle in Superior Wisconsin.

    Somewhere around 1885 to 1890 Nelson would get a divorce from his second wife Margaret.  It is thought that Nelson first went to Iron River in 1892.  He would spend time clearing the land on a farm he was homesteading there.  While in Iron River, he spent most of his time with his son Clinton’s family.  Nelson was also traveling back to Pine Grove, and while there, he lived with Lester’s family.  Today we can see what Nelson looked like in 1892 as there is a photo dated that year.

    There are no known photographs of Nelson’s wives Christina or Margaret.  This is also the case for his father Henry.  They may have been photographed at some point in history with the existence of the photo being unknown to most descendents today.  A picture may be lost in some old attic waiting to be discovered.  The photograph may not have survived, perhaps being destroyed at some point in history.  It may be in possession with a family member who has lost contact with other descendants in the century or more since the photo may have been taken.  It was said that Nelson’s grandfather, Ambrose Ferguson had his picture taken before his passing, in which the whereabouts of this photograph today are unknown.

 The Final Move

In 1900 Nelson received the one hundred and fifty six acres just north of town on under the Homestead Act.  This was the land that Nelson had cleared mostly with his own hands.  The Iron River flows and winds through the farm there.  The families of Alice and Lester would also follow their father to Iron River.  It is here one could say the family put down some roots as today over one hundred years later, Iron River continues to be called home by some of Nelson’s descendants.  Nelson’s children Alice and Lester would live the rest of their lives in Iron River.  Clinton would move on to settle in Minnesota with his family. 

On June 8th of 1909 Nelson would pass away, making Iron River his final home as well as final resting place.  He would be laid to rest in Iron River City Cemetery, a place where some of his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren have also since been laid to rest there.