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Senator William Irwin Ferguson, Esq.
Wayne C. Temple
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Benjamin F. Ferguson (April 23, 1798 - February 3, 1842) of Monogahela City, Washington County, Pennsylvania, married Sarah Irwin (September 17, 1806 - April 6, 1886), also of that town. Two of their children were born there: William Irwin Ferguson (ca. May 6, 1825 - Sept. 14, 1858) and Elizabeth Jane Ferguson (May 12, 1832 - Nov. 20, 1886). Benjamin labored in the building trades, and moved his family to Springfield, Illinois, in 1835. With them was a free colored girl under the age of ten years.1 |
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In Springfield, Mr. Ferguson bought Lot No. 7 in Block 1 of the Elijah Iles Addition on January 4, 1836, from Iles for $175. This was on the East side of South Sixth Street, between Monroe & Market (now Capitol) streets. He constructed a large two-story frame house on this lot, and later when Dr. John Todd acquired this property, it was numbered 73 South Sixth Street. For some reason, Ferguson sold his house and lot to Ninian Wirt Edwards on December 21, 1841, for $3,000.2 |
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In Springfield, two more children were born to Benjamin and Sarah: Benjamin Hamilton Ferguson (December 5, 1835-January 7, 1903) and Robert Irwin Ferguson (August 5, 1839-February 2, 1900). The elder Ferguson followed his usual occupation and built several structures, some in stone. On June 26, 1837, he was among those chosen to examine the contract records concerning the construction of the new Illinois State Capitol.3 |
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Benjamin Ferguson suffered an untimely death on February 3, 1842, not yet having reached his forty-fourth year, and his body was interred in Hutchinson Cemetery. However, it was later removed in September of 1883 to Oak Ridge Cemetery and reburied in one of the lots in Block 10 owned by Jacob Bunn since April 3, 1863.4 |
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Young Benjamin H., at about the age of thirteen in 1848, was at work assisting William Mourer with the repair of the huge front doors of the State House. Widow Sarah (Irwin) Ferguson continued to keep house for her little family and maintained her own home at least as late as 1850. Being the oldest male in the family, William I. Ferguson assisted his widowed mother in supporting their household.5 |
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Since August of 1835, Edward Dickinson Baker (February 24, 1811-October 21, 1861) had resided in Springfield practicing law. The "Old Grey Eagle," as he was often called, had merely studied law with Judge Alfred W. Cavarly in Carrollton before traveling north to Springfield. (Cavarly had come very early to Illinois from Connecticut.) However, no official Illinois law license has ever been found for Baker. It was with Baker that Ferguson began to read law, was licensed to practice on December 14, 1843, and had his name entered upon the Roll of Attorneys with the Supreme Court of Illinois on January 10, 1844.6 |
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Like his mentor, Ferguson became an outstanding orator and was sometimes seen in the company of Whig friends. He possessed "extraordinary talent" and practiced some with Baker, himself. Ferguson gained a wide reputation for his knowledge of criminal law as well as his speaking abilities to the extent that on several occasions he was engaged to assist Lincoln & Herndon in some of their more difficult legal cases in the Supreme Court: August 31, 1849; November 27, 1850; March 24, 1851; and February 6, 1852. In addition, on December 10, 1850, he even assisted Orville Hickman Browning.7 |
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In May of 1845, the Springfield City Council appointed Ferguson its City Clerk and Attorney. Then on November 1, 1845, Ferguson announced that he had formed a partnership with William Walker of Camden, Logan County, which firm would practice in Logan and Mason counties. Walker had been licensed on February 22, 1845, and enrolled as an attorney two days later.8 |
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At that time, Illinois was a predominately-Democratic state, and in 1847, Ferguson seems to have changed political parties and won election as a Democratic Presidential Elector and got to cast his vote for Lewis Cass since Illinois again went Democratic, although Zachary Taylor, a Whig, carried the national presidential election when the Electoral College met.9 |
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When the Third and Fourth Infantry Regiments of the Illinois Volunteers returned to Springfield on July 4, 1847, from the Mexican War, William Ferguson gave a colorful welcoming address to them in Bergen Park, and Colonel E. D. Baker delivered a stirring and impressive response on behalf of the veteran troops that he had led. It must have been a happy reunion for these two old friends.10 |
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Despite his apparent success as a lawyer, politician, and orator, William I. Ferguson, for some reason, departed from Springfield on September 26, 1852, bound for Galveston, Texas, where he had decided to live, and practice law. With his departure, his widowed mother was left without a steady source of support. Fortunately, her only daughter, Elizabeth Jane Ferguson—seven years younger than William and very pretty—on April 17, 1851, had married the wealthy grocer, banker, and financier, Jacob Bunn (March 18, 1814-October 16, 1897). Sometime after William's departure, mother-in-law Sarah Ferguson gave up housekeeping and moved into the Bunn household on the west side of South Sixth Street, opposite Jackson Street, in an area dubbed "Aristocracy Hill." Jacob Bunn had purchased this land in December of 1854 and probably constructed his mansion the following year. The noted residence of Mr. Bunn was demolished in 1953. Its street number was 435 South Sixth Street.11 |
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Sarah Ferguson's remaining younger sons also found employment in Jacob Bunn's extensive enterprises. Benjamin H. became the bookkeeper at the J. & J. W. Bunn grocery business and boarded at the Chenery House. Jacob's partner and younger brother, John Whitfield Bunn (June 21, 1831-June 7, 1920) also boarded at the Chenery House. Robert I. found a position as salesman with the same firm and boarded at the American House. Sarah should have had a most pleasant life with Jacob Bunn's household; he had two servants in 1860: John Ryan, 19, born in Ireland, and Rebecca Smith, 18, a young mulatto girl, born in Illinois.12 |
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In Sangamon County, William Ferguson had been regarded as "a remarkable man then in the prime of life and full flush of his splendid talents," even thought of as "the foremost criminal lawyer" in the county. However, he did not pursue a legal career in Texas very long. A number of prominent Springfield young men were suddenly drawn to the golden promises of California. Among them were E. D. Baker, David Logan (son of Judge Stephen Trigg Logan), and William Irwin Ferguson. Abraham Lincoln, as the junior partner of S. T. Logan, had left the partnership partly so that David Logan could join his father in the law office. Nevertheless, David Logan, who received a law license on June 27, 1844, and was enrolled as an attorney on July 8, 1844, did not long remain with his father. The elder Logan could not tolerate his son's alcoholism, and David journeyed out to California and later went north to Oregon where he died in 1874.13 |
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For some unknown reason, Ferguson forsook Texas in the summer of 1853 and made the long trek to Sacramento, California, where he "took and maintained his position among the brightest men at the Bar." Like so many lawyers, Ferguson quickly became involved once more in local politics and won election to a Senate seat in the California Legislature where he served from 1855 to 1857, representing the Sacramento District: No. 20. Ferguson was now an Anti-Lecompton, Douglas Democrat who spoke out loudly against the spread of slavery. Pro-Slavery residents of Kansas in 1857 drew up the Lecompton Constitution that excluded free Negroes and pronounced slaves to be property, etc. It was later defeated.14 |
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Typical of those times, California's Democratic Party was badly split over the slavery issue. One wing brazenly declared itself aligned with the pro-slavery forces of the South. Among the most vociferous of the latter group was George Penn Johnston, Clerk of the United States Circuit Court and the editor of the Sacramento National. He openly vowed to oust the opposition segment by every means possible. Born in Tennessee, Johnston in 1858 was thirty-four and had been trained as a lawyer.15 |
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Politics in California during this turbulent era was a very dangerous profession, with deadly duels taking place quite often. William I. Ferguson's misfortune began on August 19, 1858, while he was sitting in the noted Bank Exchange Saloon on Montgomery and Washington streets in San Francisco. Johnston "fancied" that he heard Senator Ferguson make some "slurring" remarks about the daughter of U. S. Senator William McKendree Gwin (October 9, 1805-September 3, 1885). Gwin had come out to California in 1849 from Mississippi after having served from there as a Representative in Congress. (He had been born in Tennessee.) Now, an ardent Democrat in California politics, Gwin had gained a Senate seat in Washington where he eventually sat from 1850 until 1861. He, like Johnston, was an outspoken proponent of slavery. (During the Civil War, he was even twice arrested by Federal authorities for disloyalty!) |
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Upon overhearing some of Ferguson's conversation with friends, Johnston immediately jumped up and demanded that Senator Ferguson apologize for his perceived remarks. Ferguson vehemently denied that he had insulted Gwin's daughter, whereupon the violent Johnston drew his pistol and attempted to shoot Ferguson! (Shades of South Carolina Congressman Preston S. Brooks' cowardly attack with a cane upon Senator Charles Sumner while he was seated in the Senate Chamber of the Nation's Capitol in 1856.) Men with cooler heads stepped between the two and stopped this assassination attempt. However, on the following day, Johnston challenged Ferguson to a duel, and he accepted. |
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The protagonists met with pistols upon Angel Island in San Francisco Bay at five p. m. on August 21. After several rounds of fire—each at a closer distance—Johnston demanded an apology that Ferguson refused to give since he again declared that he had not insulted anybody. When Johnston had been slightly wounded on the wrist, the duel should have ended right there, according to their prior agreement. Nevertheless, Johnston continued the fight and shot Ferguson in the right thigh, shattering the bone. Infection set in, and about three weeks later—September 14—surgeons, using chloroform, amputated the affected leg. Just a half hour after the surgery, Ferguson died. He had requested, prior to the surgery, that his old colleague and bosom friend, E. D. Baker, pronounce a funeral address and bury him in Sacramento if he did not survive the operation. Attending Ferguson was his servant, a man named "John," perhaps a person of color. |
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Senator Baker had the body removed to Sacramento and placed in the Senate Chamber where he rendered a stirring eulogy on September 16. Colonel Baker told his listeners of Ferguson's illustrious life—cut short at just thirty years. He divulged that Ferguson "was by nature and habit a politician." He continued by reminding those in attendance that "of all callings, that of a politician is the most illusive and unsatisfactory: it kindles the mind in a state of constant excitement; it is a constant struggle, which is frequently injurious in its effect." (He did not reveal that Ferguson had rather reddish hair and perhaps, like his hair, a bit of a temper.) Baker strongly condemned dueling "which offers to personal vindictiveness, a life due only to a country, a family, and to God." Sadly, he admitted that he might "find others, but I shall not be able to find friends that I have loved in other years. I shall not often find those to whom I can, as I could to him, talk of the old familiar times." It, indeed, was a great deathly honor for the popular Senator Ferguson to lie in state within the California Capitol in the face of his many admiring supporters.16 |
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Following Baker's poignant eulogy, the Rev. Mr. Joseph Augustus Benton (May 7, 1818-April 8, 1892) preached a touching funeral service. He had been on the first ship, the Edward Everett, which sailed from Boston to the California gold fields with a mining company onboard. The ship reached San Francisco on July 6, 1849, but Benton came to spread religion, not dig for gold. From San Francisco, the Rev. Benton moved up to Sacramento and established the First Church of Christ, a Congregational denomination. On July 14, he reached Sacramento and put up a tent for worship services. He kept diaries that are now in the California State Library. Benton had been born in Guilford County, Connecticut. He later identified himself as a Congregational minister. A learned man, by June of 1880, the Rev. Benton had become a Professor of Theology in Oakland. At last, he had found his true calling, having been educated at Yale University before going to California. It was most certainly Baker who arranged for Rev. Benton to conduct the funeral rites for Ferguson. Baker belonged to the Disciples of Christ denomination and in early years even preached.17 |
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Upon the conclusion of the most impressive ceremonies, Ferguson's body was borne with great pageantry from the Capitol to the State burial section of the Sacramento City Cemetery that had been founded in 1849. Accompanying the remains were military units, fire companies, etc. At the gravesite, the Sutter Rifle Company fired a salute over his body, and it was buried in Lot 88. A headstone was later erected over the grave.18 |
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William Ferguson's immediate family and his Bunn in-laws learned from somebody that the deceased had had his portrait painted while in California. Quite naturally, they sought to acquire it if it were for sale. And, indeed, it arrived safely in Springfield by express on January 28, 1860. A local reporter described it as being "a splendid portrait in oil colors of Hon. William I. Ferguson, late Sacramento Senator," and that the picture could be viewed at the residence of Jacob Bunn, Esq. Relatives pronounced it "an admirable likeness." Although unsigned, they were told that it had been executed by a noted photographer and painter by the name of Selleck, which they spelled "Sellick."19 |
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Silas Selleck (1827–1885) had been born in New York State. By 1846, he was in New York City and a member of the New York State Daguerreian Association. For six years, he worked as the principal cameraman in Matthew B. Brady's famous studio. By 1854, though, Selleck offered his services as a daguerreotype artist at 142 Montgomery Street in San Francisco. When the Ferguson portrait left California for Illinois, Artist Selleck kept shop at 163 Clay Street. Selleck died in Sacramento on June 17, 1885. His wife, Sarah E., survived him and was living in San Francisco with her son-in-law, Harry Mortimer, in 1900. She died in 1909.20 |
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Somehow, the valuable portrait of William Irwin Ferguson found its way to the Law Library of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, where it hangs on the North wall. Paperwork has been lost, but certainly, the Ferguson or Bunn families presented it to the State of Illinois years ago. |
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William I. Ferguson's widowed mother, Sarah, continued to reside in the Jacob Bunn household. This home had three servants to look after the premises in 1880: Lizzie Quint, eighteen, born in Germany; Maggie Foster, twenty, born in Illinois; and Charles Mattson, twenty-three, a black male, born in Tennessee. Amid such pleasant surroundings, Sarah Ferguson died on April 6, 1886, and was buried in one of Jacob Bunn's lots at Oak Ridge Cemetery after a funeral service by the Rev. James A. Reed of the First Presbyterian Church where the Bunns and Fergusons attended.21 |
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Jacob Bunn, the old patriarch of a most distinguished family, died unexpectedly while working at his office desk on October 16, 1897, and was buried in the Bunn family block in Oak Ridge.22 Jacob had long outlived his pretty, younger wife, Elizabeth Jane, who had passed away on November 20, 1886. She had only outlived her own mother by about seven months! |
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For additional information on the Bunn family, see Andrew Taylor Call, Jacob Bunn: Legacy of an Illinois Industrial Pioneer (Lawrenceville, Va: Brunswich Publishing, 2005). |
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Notes
1 His middle name was probably Franklin; Sangamo Journal, 11 February 1842, p. 2, c. 6; Newton Bateman & Paul Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Sangamon County (Chicago: Munsell Pub. Co., 1912), 1215–16; U. S. Census 1850, Springfield, Sangamon Co., Ill., p. 124B, 11. 12–17; Bateman & Selby, eds., Hist. Encyl. of Ill., 1215; U. S. Census 1840, Springfield, Sangamon Co., Ill., p. 3, 1. 19. The Fergusons were living next to Ben. S. Edwards and John Irwin and close to Robert Irwin (spelled by the census taker as "Erwin").
2 Sangamon County Abstract Company, I, 187, MS., Lincoln Public Library, Springfield.
3 Bateman & Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois, 1215; U. S. Census 1850, Springfield, Sangamon Co., Ill., p. 124B, 11. 12–17. Tombstone records in Oak Ridge Cemetery for dates of birth. Newspaper obituaries for dates of death; Sunderine (Wilson) Temple & Wayne C. Temple, Abraham Lincoln and Illinois' Fifth Capitol (Mahomet: Mayhaven Pub., 2006), 35–6.
4 Sangamo Journal, 11 February 1842, p. 2, c. 6; Oak Ridge Cemetery tombstone; Lot Record Card for plots purchased by Jacob Bunn in Oak Ridge Cemetery, MS., Oak Ridge Cemetery Office, Springfield. Hutchinson Cemetery was closed and bodies were removed to locations outside the city limits.
5 Temple & Temple, Abraham Lincoln and Illinois' Fifth Capitol, 164; U. S. Census 1850, Springfield, Sangamon Co., Ill., p. 124B, 11. 12–17. Living with her was also Rebecca Smith, nine years of age.
6 Harry C. Blair & Rebecca Tarshis, Colonel Edward D. Baker: Lincoln's Constant Ally (Portland: Oregon Hist. Soc., 1960), 5, 10–11; Roll of Attorneys, 1817–1902, no pagination, MS., Illinois State Archives.
7 Illinois State Journal, 15 October 1858, p. 3, c. 1; William E. Baringer, ed., Lincoln Day by Day (Washington: Lincoln Sesquicentennial Comm., 1960), II, 19, 44, 50, 69; Dan W. Bannister, Lincoln and the Illinois Supreme Court (Springfield: Dan W. Bannister, 1995), 35, 105, 125; T. C. Pease & J. G. Randall, eds., The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning (Springfield: Ill. State Hist. Lib., 1925), I, 30.
8 Sangamo Journal, 29 May 1845, p. 2, c. 1; Ibid., 6 November 1845, p. 2, c. 6. Camden later became part of Lincoln, Illinois; Roll of Attorneys, MS., Illinois State Archives.
9 Executive Record, 1847–1852, V, 178, MS., Illinois State Archives.
10 Paul M. Angle, "Here I Have Lived:" A History of Springfield 1821–1865 (Springfield: Abraham Lincoln Assoc., 1935), 135–6.
11 Illinois Daily Journal, 27 September 1852, p. 3, c. 1; Marriage License, Sangamon County, IRAD, U.I.S. Library; U. S. Census 1860, Springfield, Sangamon Co., Ill., p. 133, 1. 31; Bunn folder in the Sangamon Valley Collection, Lincoln Public Library, Springfield.
12 The Illinois State Journal, 9 June 1920, p. 11, c. 5; Williams' Springfield Directory ... For 1860–61 (Springfield: Johnson & Bradford, 1860), 63, 79; U. S. Census 1860, Springfield, Sangamon Co., Ill., p. 133, 11. 26–35.
13 Blair & Tarshis, Colonel Edward D. Baker, 83; Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society, XII, 147n; Roll of Attorneys, MS., Illinois State Archives; David Alan Johnson, Founding the Far West: California, Oregon, and Nevada (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1992), 156–7.
14 Blair & Tarshis, Col. E. D. Baker, 83; Official California records, Sacramento.
15 U. S. Census 1860, El Dorado Co., California, p. 847, 1. 7; Milton H. Shutes, Lincoln and California (Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1943), 26. In 1860, he was a lawyer, living alone, in Placerville, near Sacramento; perhaps he had to vacate his positions because of the duel and moved away from Sacramento.
16 Shutes, Lincoln and California, 26; Blair & Tarshis, Col. Baker, 82–4; California newspaper reports reprinted in the Illinois State Journal, Oct. 4, 1858, p. 3, c. 2, 19 October 1858, p. 1, cc. 1–2.
17 U. S. Census 1870, San Francisco, California, p. 140, 1. 33; Ibid., 1880, Oakland, Alameda Co., California, p. 131, 1. 33.
18 Daily Illinois State Journal, 19 October 1858, p. 3, c. 1, reporting the events from California newspapers. Sacramento City Cemetery Records.
19 Illinois Daily State Journal, 2 Februry 1860, p. 3, c. 2.
20 For a short-but-concise biography of Silas Selleck, see http://www.daguerreotype.com/setable.htm. U. S. Census 1860, San Francisco, California, p. 1266, 11. 3–7; ibid., 1870, p. 709, 11. 20–24; ibid., 1880, p. 747, 11. 43–7; ibid., 1900, Sup. Dist. No. 1, Enum. Dist. No. 213, Sheet No. 6B, line 5.
21 U. S. Census 1880, Springfield, Sangamon Co., Ill., p. 261, 11. 40–51; Illinois State Journal, 8 April 1886, p. 1, c. 6: Lot Record Card for Jacob Bunn's plots.
22 Illinois State Journal, 17 October 1897, p. 6, c. 4. Special thanks to Amanda Alsbury, James Cornelius, Melinda Garvert, Teena D. Groves, Beverly Hickox-Whitton, Keith Housewright, Curtis Mann, Steven K. Rogstad, Stacey Skeeters, and Sunderine Temple.
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