Ferguson, Andrew

1818–1888

Andrew Ferguson was born on 6 September 1818 in Rutherglen, Scotland to William and Barbara (Orthur Lindsay) Ferguson. Andrew was one of twelve children. He married Catherine Douglas in 1842 when he was twenty-four years old. Andrew and Catherine joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints two years later. They had five children before Catherine’s death in 1849 from cholera.

Andrew remarried several months after Catherine’s death. His second wife, Elizabeth Watson, already had two children of her own. Andrew and Elizabeth had three children.

Andrew served as a Latter-day Saint missionary in Great Britain from 1851 to 1855. His family, numbering eight persons in his absence, was very poor during this time. The family immigrated to the United States in February 1855 and arrived in Salt Lake City that September in the Moses Thurston Company.

The Fergusons settled in Spanish Fork, Utah, where Andrew supported the family by farming. From 1867 to 1869, he served as president of the Spanish Fork Mercantile Institution. He also served as a justice of the peace, alderman, and city attorney.

In 1875, one year after Elizabeth passed away, Andrew married Mary Baxter. Four years later, at the age of sixty-one, he served for two years as a missionary to Scotland. Andrew and Mary divorced upon his return. Andrew then married Margaret Anderson in 1887, one year before he died on 19 February 1888 in Spanish Fork at the age of seventy.

Bibliography

Allred, LaNora P. Spanish Fork: City on the Rio de Aguas Calientes. Spanish Fork, UT: J-Mart Publishing Company, 1981.

Esshom, Frank. Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah. Salt Lake City: Western Epics, 1966.