Thomas Ferguson, son of Walter Ferguson and Rebecca (Paul) Ferguson, is a native of Westmoreland Co., PA born June 7, 1825. His father was a native of Ireland, born in 1786, and his mother was a native of Pennsylvania. They came with their family, including, Thomas, our subject, to Wayne Co., Ohio in October, 1829, and located on Section 15, Congress Township. The father died in 1871, the mother in 1840. The father was twice married, and had a family of ten children, five born to each marriage. Rebecca Paul was his second wife. Two of the family are yet living. Walter Ferguson the father of Thomas, came with his father to this continent in 1789. They resided a few years in Cumberland County Penn., and then moved to Westmoreland Co., same State. Thomas, the subject of this memoir, was married in October, 1949 to Rebecca Jane, daughter of James Patterson, who came to Wayne County, Ohio sixty years ago, becoming one of the first settlers of Congress Township, where he died in 1867. To Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson were born eight children, all now living except one: James W. born December 17, 1850; Sydney M. born June 13, 1853 died October 13, 1882; Emma V. born July 1, 1855; Reuben B., born May 18, 1858; Ohio P. born April 27, 1860; Charles E. born October 29, 1862, Thomas V. born October 10, 1984; Mary J., born September 11, 1867.
Although our subject's opportunities for obtaining an education were very limited in his day, as compared with the present, still his assiduous application to his books and steady perseverance in his studies have placed him above the average on the roll of well-read men in his county. For some time, while a young man, he taught school, and in after years his judgment and intelligence were recognized by the community in selecting him to assist in making the township assessments under the new law, and he has since served many times in the same capacity. Mr. Ferguson has for many years been a leader among the agriculturalists and stock raisers of Wayne County, where his sixty years of continuous residence places him among the foremost of pioneers. He owns the old homestead on Section 15 before referred to where his father so long lived, besides an excellent farm, one and a half miles west of the old farm place where he at present resides. Politically he is a Republican, having been an old-line Whig in his earlier life.