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HAMILTON IN THE MIDDLE AND LATE SIXTIES 
THE PROUGH FAMILY IN HAMILTON 
WM. WAGENSELLER HAMILTON BUILDER IN LATE SIXTIES 
EARLY BUTCHER SHOP IN HAMILTON 
GEORGE LAMSON - EARLY STATION AGENT AND BANKER AT HAMILTON
THE REED FAMILY, HAMILTON MERCHANTS IN 1869 
STRATHER M. MITCHELL, HAMILTON, MISSOURI 
JUDGE JUNIUS ALONZO HOLLIDAY - EARLY HAMILTON LAWYER
SOME NEWSPAPER HISTORY IN HAMILTON 
PROFESSOR DAVID M. FERGUSON 

HAMILTON IN THE MIDDLE AND LATE SIXTIES 
Narrator: Mrs. Mary Jane Holliday, 94, Hamilton, Missouri

The Bowman Family 
The Early Main Street 
The Episcopal Church

Mrs. Holliday was born 1840 in Illinois. Her maiden name was
Mary Jane Kendall and her first husband's name was Glasner, the second
Holliday. In 1865 just after the war the Glasner family came to
Hamilton, drawn here by the fact that her mother married Vincent
Bowman and already lived here. The Bowmans were early settlers in
this town. Alston Bowman had a lumber yard and his brother Vincent
built many of the early houses here, the Art Lollis house, the old
Cochran-Spratt house in the north west part of town, and the house
formerly standing at the south west corner of the High School lot.
In 1865 Mrs. Glasner lived on the present Harry Lampton home and her
closest neighbors were two ex-slaves who lived in white washed
shanties across to the south east - Uncle Charley Dunn and Uncle Lewis
Butts. The old Henry Thornton family lived near them on Mill Street.
Much of that district was empty. When she came in 1865, most of
the business was done on the street north of the depot-now treated as
an alley. On that street were: Kempers, Richardson, McAdoos
(druggist) and later on there was a Jew, Lombosaky, who had a jewelry
store there and hired a clerk named Mitchell. Mitchell had a store
there later on. She recalled Marion Hines running a lumber yard on
the Higgins property (now the Tooley Mill site). Some after this
time, there was a yard on the Cash corner on south Main where the
Witwers had a wagon store. At the north end of this block Mr. Davis
had a one story frame (location of Bank today) where he had a office.
Later he rented it to Squire Holliday his relative (no relative of her
second husband). In the early sixties Mrs. Glasner was cook for
the Western Hotel kept by the Goodman family and located at the middle
of the first block north of railroad on Main west side. When she was
cook, Bill Kemper, Lee Cosgrove, Ben Langshore boarded there at times.
It was quite a fine hotel in its day. Mrs. Glasner-Holliday was a
charter member of the Episcopal church which stood there on the site
of the present Mrs. Harry Sloan home. It was sold some years ago and
now is the Catholic rectory in the south end of town. Other early
members were Mr. and Mrs. George Reddie, Mrs. Brosius, Miss Alma
Clark, the Rook family, the Waterman family and a few others. The
Tuttle family came in a little later. When the monthly services were
held, outsiders who attended sometimes giggled when the rector came in
with his white robes. The chant music too seemed queer and sometimes
aroused a grin from those not used to the service; likewise the
frequent "getting up and getting down" of the members. Some people
then thought the Episcopal church was the Catholic church because they
both used a prayer book and there was a cross on the church.

Interviewed June 1934.

~~~~~~~~~~

THE PROUGH FAMILY IN HAMILTON 
Narrator: John Prough, 71, of Hamilton, Missouri

Early Prough Life in Hamilton 
Baptist Church Leaders 
Meat Markets and Ice Men

John Prough was born 1857 in Stark County Ohio. He was the son
of Jacob Prough and Mary Wachler. Jacob was from a Pennsylvania Dutch
settlement, and the family had been in America a long time, yet they
spoke little English. The Wachlers were in an Ohio German settlement
and they also spoke German. Hence the Prough family here usually
spoke German at home and the elder Prough had a decided German tongue.
Jacob Prough came to Daviess County 1870 and brought what is not
the Alden place. He became angered when the section line road was not
run by his farm, so he sold it and went to Indiana. In 1876 he came
to Caldwell County locating at Hamilton. He bought the present
Blevins home in the west end of town for his home and slaughter yard,
and set up a butcher shop on south Main. His store was a two-story
frame where the John Bennett produce store now stands. The Prough
family afterwards lived above the store. Most of the frames then on
Main Street were one story with a "false front" extending to a height
of two stories. To the north of Prough's meat market was Seth Young's
law office, on the south was Grigsby's Hardware, Jewelry and Fence
store. Later, Jacob Prough moved his shop to Dr. King's
building-north Main, the present site of the Missouri Store. A third
site was in Tom Hare's building east of (present) Chet Martin grocery.
Butcher shops those days used a Stevens ice box to keep meat fresh.
They having the quarters on hooks for a day or so to get rid of the
animal heat and save the ice. Then they were stored in the ice box
for four days to ripen before selling. Ice was put up in winter
from ponds and packed in ice houses in saw dust. A warm winter was
dreaded by ice men who often were butchers. Ice was very cheap and
delivered by being thrown (brown with sawdust) in the front yard.
John Prough worked for his father and also for Lievan another butcher.
He was paid $20 to $25 a month. He recalled when Mrs. Lievan hanged
herself in the barn of the Lievan home. They were then living on the
farm just north of John Prough's present home. John Prough became
a Baptist and was immersed in Marrowbone. Another baptizing place
much used then was Nettleton. Baptist leaders of the late seventies
at Hamilton were: Deacon Edminster and son Jack, Goddards, Clarksons,
R.F. Whitman, of course the Penny family, E. Lawrence, Mrs. Van Note,
Griffin and Kingsbury. 

Interviewed June 1934.

~~~~~~~~~~

WM. WAGENSELLER HAMILTON BUILDER IN LATE SIXTIES 
Narrator: Mrs. Wm. Wagenseller, 91, of Hamilton, Missouri

Their Neighbors 
The McCoys 
Indians 
Fires

Mrs. Wagenseller (born Eliza Garner of Illinois) lives by herself
in her own home built by her husband Wm. Wagenseller sixty years ago
on Kingston Street, in the extreme south end of Hamilton. In spite of
her years, she is yet a careful house keeper and quilt piecer.
She and her husband came here in 1867 in the building boom. He had
gone to Keytesville Missouri from his Crawford County Illinois home to
claim a piece of land given him by his father, but it was so heavy
with back taxes that he let it go. There he heard of the building
boom in this county and he came to Hamilton hoping there would be need
of his work - plastering and carpentering. Mrs. Wagenseller soon
followed. They stayed at the Claypool Hotel (formerly the Davis
House) on the east side of Main Street second block north of railroad
till they found a vacant house to rent - "a shack" north of the
Presbyterian church. Then Mr. Wagenseller bought the land on the
Kingston road (now street) where he built what is known to old timers
as the Murray House now replaced by bungelows. The Wagenseller family
lived on the first floor and rented the second floor to another
family. Such was the demand for houses. Then he sold this and bought
a lot to the south where he built the present Wagenseller home.
In their part of town, the neighbors were Rev. and Mrs. Wilmot and her
mother Mrs. Perkins - first house south of park (still standing);
Whitely, the grocer in a store on the south corner opposite the park
where a wind mill also stood later; the Schwartz house east of the
Wilmot (still standing); the Sproue family farther down south on the
road (Sproue committed suicide and was buried at the extreme south end
of the Old Cemetery because self murderers were not entitled to a
place among other dead); on the south end of Broadway were the Witwers
(Mr. Witwer and sons had a wagon yard on the south east corner of
South Main now commonly called the Cash corner); and by them lived the
Healey family (Mr. Healey was Mr. Wagenseller's partner). Quite a
distance down Kingston road was Wm. McCoy's ten acre place (now Booth
property) where McCoy farmed and lived with his first wife and his
large family - Mel, Mary, Lucy, Roxie, Ollie, Harmon and possibly
more. He lost his first wife here. Afterwards he moved into town
married the widow Farabee and built a grocery store facing on South
Broadway, his home being on the same lot; above his store were rooms
used for lodge and church purposes, later used as a home by the McCoy
girls. She recalled the Indian visits to the town in the late
sixties. They would come up from the south road leaving their ponies
outside of town. If a neighbor saw them coming, she would run and
tell their neighbors. All would quickly prepare cooked food for that
was what the Indians wanted. One woman had her own meal on the table
when she ran to inform her neighbor about the Indians. When she came
back her food was all gone. They walked into the homes without
knocking. Those were the days of bad fires for no fire company
existed. When the cry of "Fire" was heard repeated on the streets it
was the custom for a man to pick up a bucket and go to help with the
bucket-line or bucket-brigade by which water was passed from the well
to the fire. The first fire engine was bought early in the eighties.
The hook and ladder company existed some earlier. The "hook" tore
down buildings or walls to prevent a spread of fire. After Mr.
Wagenseller was too old to build, he became township collector. He
was a strong G.A.R. man and a member of the school board for many
years. His daughter Mollie (by his first wife) clerked in the O.O.
Brown store on Broadway, Nellie gave music lessons, and Jessie (Mrs.
Smith) was a school teacher of the nineties. His son George became a
business man in the South. 

Interviewed February 1934.

~~~~~~~~~~

EARLY BUTCHER SHOP IN HAMILTON 
Narrator: Bert Goodman, 67, Hamilton, Missouri

Mr. Goodman is the son of old Wm. Goodman who kept the Western
Hotel on the west side of North Main during the sixties. Having spent
his life in Hamilton he has known almost every Merchant in town during
that time. You used to enter a meat market or meat shop or
butcher shop, as many said, to see on either side whole steers or hogs
hanging on stout hooks. They were dressed and aging to eat. Men
would go in and pick out the cut of meat they wanted from the large
stock (no telephoning for meat sight unseen those days). There were
no groceries sold in meat shops. Usually two men worked in a
shop, so busy at times that several customers were waiting. Meat was
cheap and many had it three times a day. Ten cents bought sufficient
round steak for an average family, fifteen cents paid for porter
house. Butchers bought their own cattle and slaughtered them in
their own slaughter-houses at the edge of town. These places were
very unpleasant to smell. Some early butchers were: Claypool and
Rymal, Claypool was a familiar name in the early years here. He ran
the Claypool Hotel (the old Davis House) and was a good butcher. His
partner was George Rymal - a Canadian by birth who came to Kingston
1861 as a carpenter and married Miss McClelland (Joe McClelland's
aunt). The Civil War drove him to Canada. After the war they
returned to Caldwell County. He became a farmer, a butcher, a
carpenter, by turns in Hamilton. In the eighties he was a partner in
a meat shop with James Collins who married Bert Goodman's sister.
Collin's meat shop was on the site of the present First Bank and Trust
Company in the old Manning brick. His father, Michael Collins lived
in the sixties on the old "Prouty" farm just east of town.
Another partner of Collins was C.C. Greene who came to Hamilton first
in 1868 with his brother-in-law A.G. Howard and bought a farm south of
town but he soon went into the meat business about where the McLean
Hotel stands. His partner then was Sain who later was also a partner
of Collins. Jacob Prough and sons John and Dory had a meat shop where
Bennett's Produce store stands and later went on the north side.
Lievan had two or three shops till after a fire in the eighties when
he quit. Mallory and sons were here in the early eighties in the old
Oasis shop, first door east of the Hamilton House. John Minger, who
kept a grocery and a restaurant, seems to have been the first grocer
to try to sell meats. He tried it awhile about 1879 but it was not a
success. 

Interviewed January 1933.

~~~~~~~~~~

GEORGE LAMSON - EARLY STATION AGENT AND BANKER AT HAMILTON
Narrator: Mrs. Hattie Lamson, 90, Hamilton, Missouri

Hamilton Savings Bank 
Mr. Lamson's Funeral

Mr. Lamson was born in New Hampshire 1839 and moved to Illinois as a
youth. In 1863 he came to Brookfield, Missouri as a railroad depot
employee. In 1864 he came to the little town of Hamilton as depot
agent. He held this place till asked to be cashier of the Hamilton
Savings Bank May 1878 and was there till his death December 1878.
This Bank had been organized about two years before under Ed House of
Cameron, Missouri but it was almost failing when Lamson took it. In
the short time he was there, he raised the bank stock above par.
People who had been hiding their cash around the house now put it in
"George Lamson's Bank," because of their knowledge of him at the
depot. They had also voted for him as County Judge in 1870 and knew
that he was square. In 1865 in Fairbury Illinois he was married
to Hattie Henderson. He wouldn't accept any of her father's money to
promote his business. At different times he was partner in the lumber
business and the elevator. He must have owned over a dozen pieces of
property in Hamilton, then selling at a profit, and he was what people
called wealthy those days. Mrs. Lamson possesses his colored
picture taken in 1878 which shows black hair and eyes, red cheeks,
full face, and under-chin whiskers in the fashion of the day. He
loved gayety, dances, card parties and was of a convivial disposition.
His wife was reared by a strict Scotch Presbyterian father; but
finally she also grew to believe that dances were not always of the
Devil. When Mr. Lamson died in 1878, his funeral service was held
in Rohrbough's Hall (later Andersons) Hundreds were turned away. The
religious services were by Revs. W.H. Welton, P.B. West and F.J.
Leavitt (all of the town's preachers). The Masonic ritual was used.
The town paper of that date said the funeral procession was over
one-half mile long with one hundred Masons and fifty in Knights
Templar regalia. It was headed by Pryor's Silver Cornet Band of
sixteen pieces from St. Joseph Missouri and the paper stated it was
the grandest event of its kind ever witnessed in Hamilton. At his
death, Crosby Johnson a lawyer and stockholder, took his place as
Cashier of the Bank and Mrs. Hattie Lamson the widow became the first
woman to serve as a bank director in the county. She was Secretary of
the board and earned two dollars per meeting for the work. Finally
the directors meeting was changed from afternoon till night and she
dreading the walk home late at night, resigned. John Rohrbough took
her place. When Mr. Lamson was dying, he appointed Wm. Wilmot a
leading Mason here to take especial care of his widow. (That was a
Masonic duty in those days.) But she soon was able to get along
without Mr. Wilmot's financial advice. When Mr. and Mrs. Lamson
first came to Hamilton as a young couple 1866 they boarded at the
Hamilton House, then kept by the Mitchell family. It was directly 
of the depot and stood on a hill with a long flight of steps
down to the tracks. Afterwards Mr. and Mrs. Lamson had rooms above
the Kemper store (later the Anderson Corner) on Main Street where
Harry Lamson was born 1867, Dr. King was the doctor. Then they
bought the house at the south end of Broadway long known as the Lamson
house - now the home of Mrs. Lottie Anderson. 

Interviewed January 1934.

~~~~~~~~~~

THE REED FAMILY, HAMILTON MERCHANTS IN 1869 
Narrator: Mrs. Lottie Reed Daniels of Texas

Hamilton Stores 
Mrs. Goldberg and the Masons 
Fourth of July 
Music Teachers

Mrs. Daniels (better known to the earlier Hamilton people as
Lottie Reed and Mrs. Herbert Low) is the daughter of Myron Reed. He
and his brother Henry came to Hamilton 1869 and opened up a dry goods
store in about the third building south from the present Bram site on
Main Street. The family lived in various places in town - one site
being above the store. At that time, Dr. Tuttle's family lived in the
house north of the present Bram site and Mammie Tuttle (Eldridge) and
Lottie Reed (Daniels) were playmates in the alley between the homes.
That block in which her father's store stood was the first block north
of the railroad-east side. The buildings were frame. At the north
end was the Kemper-Paxton Store, then Reed's and then Bob William's
Drug Store. Goldberg, the Jew had a General Store near by. A
ludicrous story is told about Mrs. Goldberg. The family lived behind
the store and the upper floor was rented to the Masonic lodge. Mrs.
Goldberg had an intense desire to peep at the Masons. She got a
ladder and fixed it against the trap door (which were common in the
two-story store buildings at that time). She lifted the trap and got
her curiosity satisfied, but some how the ladder slipped and she fell
down with a crash. Dr. Tuttle had to set her arm. The family left
town soon fearing the threats of the Masons. Another early lodge hall
was above McCoy's Store on Broadway and the mill. The frame building
was built about 1870 and was torn down not twenty years ago. The
Kempers who kept the store on Main street built a house on a hill in
the west end of town - where now lives James Kautz. Some of the
younger Paxtons boarded there and went to school. Mrs. Kemper was a
Paxton. The Fourth of July celebrations of the Seventies were
held near the present Peddicord home (Dudley Addition). One year they
had a real barbecue and a bower or arbor built of branches for the
singers and speakers. They lighted candle wick balls soaked in
kerosene and threw them into the air. Another Fourth thirteen girls
for the thirteen colonies marched ahead followed at a distance by the
other "States" and still further back by the territories. Music
teachers were in demand, none being especially highly trained. Mrs.
Niles (Mother of Clarence Green's mother) Dr. Ressigien's daughter,
Mrs. T. Tuthill, Mrs. Whitman (wife of the Postmaster) Mrs. Ben
Pickell (Kate Johnson) were some of the music teachers of the
seventies. Dr. and Mrs. Stevens were vocal and instrumental teachers.
He was a dentist above the Wilson-ONeil frame store which stood on the
Penney Store site. Transient singing teachers could always get up a
good singing school. Few girls went off to school and those who did
were usually sent to convents. Mrs. Daniels went to Davy Ferguson
here and then to a convent. Correct reading for the nice young girl
in the Seventies was Peterson Magazine, Godey's Lady's Book, Frank
Leslie and another not so correct but very alluring - New York Ledger
which made Saturday a day to look forward to. Mr. Myron Reed was
the nephew of Myron Walling a farmer north of town who came into the
County 1866 from New York. He had two daughters Emma and Ida, the
latter being the school teacher. 

Interviewed August 1, 1934.

~~~~~~~~~~

STRATHER M. MITCHELL, HAMILTON, MISSOURI 
Narrator: Mrs. Ida Culp of Hamilton, Missouri

Carpenter in the 60's and 70's

Strather Marion Mitchell (b. 1839 d. 1883) came to Hamilton 1868
from Daviess County. He was nineteen years old when he married Miss
Terrill aged sixteen of near Gallatin. They began farming at once on
a rented place, neither of them knowing how to do their work well. He
ploughed and she spun and wove. In 1866, he bought a small place near
Grand river but the water rose and buried their crops and hopes. That
ended their farming. Being a carpenter, he came to Hamilton in
the building boom of 1868 to earn some money. At first most of the
houses were small being all that the new settlers could afford. Two
of the houses he built are still standing - the Tillman Reed home
(with whom Mitchell worked) and the house of George McGill (colored).
The first home of the Mitchells in Hamilton was on the rock road on
the north leading from Gallatin. Wages were low. He thought he
was doing fine if he got $1.50 a day. Yet when he brought home a sack
of flour it cost him $3, coffee was very high then, Calico was narrow
and poor in quality cost fifty to sixty cents a yard. A calico dress
then was prized more than a silk now. The quilts of the time point to
the high price of calico. They were small and the calico pieces were
few and far between. The farmer got three cents a dozen for his eggs,
seven cents a pound for middlings at Gallatin. Mrs. Mitchell often
put six eggs in a batch of corn bread and twelve to fifteen in a cake.
Mr. Mitchell and his wife kept the Hamilton House (opposite the
depot) about 1866 and George Lamson and his bride stayed there till
they rented rooms over Kemper's store. Mr. Lamson was the railroad
agent at that time. (See the Lamson paper). Mr. Mitchell later went
to Excelsior Springs and built and ran the first hotel there. He and
two of his children are buried in the old Hamilton Cemetery.

Interviewed February 25, 1934.

~~~~~~~~~~

JUDGE JUNIUS ALONZO HOLLIDAY - EARLY HAMILTON LAWYER
Narrators: H.D. Elderidge and Others

Judge Holliday was an early settler in Hamilton and for over
sixty years he was a well, known character here. Information about
him has been gained from various sources. His third cousin - Mrs.
Anna Korn of El Reno Oklahoma says, "he was the son of Ben Holliday
who founded the Missouri Intelligence and Boone's Lick Advertiser at
Old Franklin, the first county newspaper in America outside of St.
Louis. Ben was the father also of Caroline Holliday an early College
teacher at St. Charles and Prickett Institute; and of Mrs. Fannie
McClanihan of Columbia. This Ben was a first cousin of Ben Holliday
of National fame." The early Lawyer of Hamilton, J.A. Holliday
came here because his cousin A.G. Davis had founded the town and the
town needed a lawyer. He stayed on till his death about twenty two
years ago. In the earlier years, his office was at the north east
corner of south Main, a frame, two room building, owned by Squire A.G.
Davis (site of present First Bank and Trust Co.). It was one of the
few buildings on that side, south of the tracks. His office was in
the front room, his sleeping room in the back. He ate at different
hotels up town. He never married. Miss Minnie Ogden said, "he
had two unmarried sisters else where whose support rested on him."
The children in town looked on him as a sympathetic friend and were
not afraid to ask him for a nickel for candy. His contemporaries
as lawyers were (Doc) B.M. Dilley, Seth Young and Chappell, some
younger than he. His buddies were a gunsmith who had a shop on the
street north of the depot, named Goodwin or Goodin; and a carpenter
called "Old Mitch" whose shop was on the site of the Colored Baptist
Church. He had no particular ambition to make a lot of money, yet
he always had money to loan when a fellow would show good security.
When his relation here died or moved away, he seemed to like to be
left alone. As the years went on, he was more disinclined to take
practice. He had an excellent law education. He was a member of the
Legislature of Missouri which framed the Constitution of 1875; was
Clerk of the Senate and was J.P. in Hamilton for years. He loved to
sit and read - a splendid scholar. In disposition he had a quick
temperament. Larry Lampton says, "that one day while Holliday sat in
his office back of the table, a fellow called him a liar. Squire
Holliday quickly jumped the table, not waiting to go around, and
knocked him down. He was tall and spare in build, and very stately in
carriage. He was one of the last men shawl-wearers. Others of his
time were Wm. Wilmot and R.B. Houston the Banker. After his death,
young lawyers form all over the state came to bid on his excellent
library. 

~~~~~~~~~~

SOME NEWSPAPER HISTORY IN HAMILTON 
Narrator: Eugene A. Martin, 81, Editor of Pattonsburg Call

Mr. Martin's father M. Clark Martin lived in the last house on
the street running west between the James Kautz house and Hudson
house. It was then out of town. Martin took it in a trade with Rev.
Robert C. Hill for a farm near Cowgill 1869. Mr. E.A. Martin was
reared in Hamilton and had his first training as a newspaper man here.
He tells newspaper facts as he recalls them after a long life here and
in Pattonsburg. In 1867 or 68 Gabe Paxton and J.M. Gallemore
established the Hamilton Investigator. It was located north of the
railroad on Main Street. Paxton sold his interest to Bennett Whitely
and he moved the plant to the "Baptist Chapel" so called, on the
present Kingston Street east of the Park; this being the property of
Whitely which was later used as a feedmill by M.M. Shellabarger and
also was a High School. Early 1870 Whitely sold his interest to M.A.
Low, and the name was changed to Hamilton News, while the plant was
moved to a back room in the middle of the block on the east side of
south Main where Low ran it for years. Later, he ran it with the help
of (Doc) B.M. Dilley a rising young lawyer as local editor. Then M.A.
Low's brother Eugene ran it till it was sold to J.E. Hitt and John
Marens. In the later seventies Hitt and Gus Chapman began a second
paper, the Hamilton Graphic, but Chapman sold out to John Marens and
the Hitt-Marens firm bought the News from Eugene Low and News-Graphic
was born. The Marens ran it alone till late in the nineties in the
building on west side of South Main, the old Graphic office. In
1878 W.A. Morton (brother of John and Marcus) established a third
paper the Hamiltonian, upstairs above the Post Office site then, east
side of South Main. He afterwards moved it to the new Morton Building
west side of North Main (Citizens Trust Company site) who sold it to
Wilbur Clark. Clark brought it back to the south side - the present
Clark Building and sold out later to Roy McCoy who sold it to another
party. Finally a few years ago, it became combined with the
News-Graphic which thus meant three papers. But the present one,
Hamilton paper really means four papers, for the word Advocate in its
title. About 1890 James Barnhill started a Populist or farmers
movement paper calling it Farmer's Advocate. He sold it to Al Filson.
It ran in the basement of the present Post Office building. Filson
bought the News-Graphic of Marens and combined his papers in the
News-Graphic site. He sold it to Prof. Holman and Cliff Ridings who
eventually became sole owner and now has run it thirty four years.

(Interviewer's note - It seems odd that in the gradual fusion of these
four newspapers the paper should be generally known by the name of the
weakest one - the Advocate.)

~~~~~~~~~~

PROFESSOR DAVID M. FERGUSON 
Narrator: A group of his Pupils

Prof. Ferguson has left an indelible mark on the lives of the
elderly people in Hamilton. It is fitting that they tell about him
and his work. He came here from Ohio 1873 to be the first
principal of the new Brick School on the north side. The schools
before that event had been in bad shape, some rooms here, some there,
little supervision and no grading. Pupils took what they wanted and
where they wanted to. All that has been described elsewhere.
When Prof. Davy Ferguson came, he and his wife first lived in the old
Kirkendall house (after Marion Hines) then he moved into the present
Seth Young House to be near the school. He stayed there. His wife
was his second one and she was quite charming in looks and ways.
Joe Davis recalls the zest that pupils had in entering the new brick
for the first time; it was a High School, a term new to them. There
were other changes awaiting them under the new Professor. He took
each one and examined them, putting them where they belonged, so that
the term Hamilton Graded Schools, which he started meant something.
Then those fitted to be in High School, he assigned to four classes
A.B.C.D. (corresponding to Senior, Junior, Sophomore, and Freshman).
As time went on, the best students won the back seats. Under Prof.
Ferguson the High School Assistant was Miss Founts who resigned in a
month and Miss Griffin came and stayed several years, finally becoming
the second wife of Marion Hines. On the first floor were Ed Rix
intermediate and Dot Morrow primary. The school board did not
have the money to buy a bell for the school; hence Prof. Davy had
school entertainments and raised money to buy a bell, an organ and
chandeliers, so that it could be used at night. One of these plays
was "The Last Loaf." The brick had one big room on the second
floor and a recitation room at the north end. Afterwards many changes
were made but the first way is the way it is recalled by Ferguson
pupils. He stayed in Hamilton from 1873-1882, leaving to go to
Gallatin, but somehow he found it handy to come to Hamilton often for
a few years. He was about forty two when he left. He never had a
regular graduating class, but he had several who finished the course
and they were recognized later as Alumni. One of his A classes which
finished the course numbered about twenty including Ida Walling, Mel
McCoy, Herbert Low, Will Moffit, Abby Perkins, Nolie Elliott, Mollie
Partin Reed, Mamie Tuttle, Minnie Perkins, etc. He had a fine way
of talking to the pupils. They recall how he talked at the deaths of
Leila Aikens, Flora Blaker and a Penney boy killed by the train. His
favorite Bible selection was the 23rd Psalm. He taught spelling
from his own book on orthography which went through two editions, a
copy of which is in the library. The pupils spelled by syllable - as
it incompatibility I-n in c-o-m-com incom; p-a-t pat incompat -i-
incompati; b-i-l bil incompatibil; -i- incompatibili;
t-y-incompatibility. You never got lost in your spelling that way.
His title was a new one - Principal of the Graded Schools and it
stayed that way till 1891 when D.T. Gentry became Superintendent.
He was severe in his order and exacting in Scholarship yet his pupils
would do anything for him. Perhaps that is why today in the Hamilton
Public Library there is the Ferguson Memorial library collection for
his memory. At recess he played with the pupils, turning the rope
or running, but the minute the bell rang, he was all business. He
wore carpet slippers to get around noiselessly and slip up on the
idle. One morning he saw some youngsters loitering two blocks away
from school. He ran towards them and somehow they never played on the
way to school after. The High School pupils often had sociables
in the building at night. One of his favorite games was Hurly Burly.
Every one was instructed to make a noise of some animal. In the midst
of the noise he yelled "Hurly Burly" which meant to run for a chair;
since there was always one less chair than players, it was quite
exciting. Professor Ferguson or Uncle Davy as his old pupils
called him after he grew older, was not a handsome man; yet his fine
dark eyes made him quite a distinguished look. He wore a chin beard,
as the fashion of time demanded. The reader of this paper can walk
over to the Ferguson corner of the library and see an enlargement of
the picture which he had taken here as a teacher. He gave small cuts
of it on calling cards to several of his pupils. It is difficult
for us who worked under him to tell the extent of his influence in
moulding the lives of men and women who became leaders in Hamilton
life and progress. To him we were always his boys and girls; to us
always he was the perfect teacher and gentleman.

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This page was last updated September 24, 2006.