{{about|the American lumber merchant and philanthropist|the American radio host|Ben Ferguson}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2016}} {{Infobox person | name = Benjamin F. Ferguson | image = Benjamin Franklin Ferguson (c. 1838 – 1905).png | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Benjamin Franklin Ferguson | birth_date = {{Circa|1838}} | birth_place = | death_date = April 10, 1905 | death_place = Chicago, Illinois, US | burial_place = Rosehill Cemetery | occupation = Lumber merchant | awards = | spouse = | children = | education = | signature = Signature of Benjamin Franklin Ferguson (c. 1838 – 1905).png | party = }} '''Benjamin Franklin Ferguson''' ({{Circa|1838}} – 1905) was an American lumber merchant and co-founder of the ''Santee River Cypress Lumber Company''. The firm specialized in the harvesting of old-growth timber from the blackwater river bottomlands of central South Carolina, in and around the Santee River watershed. The tracts of land logged by Ferguson, in partnership with fellow logging executive Francis Beidler, included substantial tracts of valuable bald cypress.<ref name="Ferguson">{{cite web |url=http://randomconnections.com/the-ghost-towns-of-lake-marion-part-2-ferguson/ |title=The Ghost Towns of Lake Marion, Part 2 - Ferguson |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=April 17, 2013 |website=randomconnections.com |access-date=November 19, 2017 }}</ref>
With profits from the Santee River logging venture, Ferguson became a philanthropist. His 1905 $1 million (${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|1|1905|r=1}}}} million today) charitable trust gift funded seventeen of the most notable public monuments and sculptures in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The works include Lorado Taft's ''Fountain of Time'' and ''Fountain of the Great Lakes'', Henry Moore's ''Nuclear Energy'' at Chicago Pile-1 and ''Man Enters the Cosmos'', and a work by Isamu Noguchi.<ref>{{cite book|title=Millennium Park: Creating a Chicago Landmark|url=https://archive.org/details/millenniumparkcr00gilf|url-access=registration|author=Gilfoyle, Timothy J.|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=2006|page=[https://archive.org/details/millenniumparkcr00gilf/page/346 346]|isbn=9780226293493}}</ref><ref name=TRoMiMGaAS>{{cite journal|jstor=1574334|title=The Role of Materials in My Geometric and Abstract Sculpture: A Memoir|date=Winter 1982|author=Greene-Mercier, Marie Zoe|journal=Leonardo|volume=15|issue=1|pages=1–6|doi=10.2307/1574334|s2cid=191380859}}</ref> Ferguson's gift set out terms whereby the Art Institute of Chicago was empowered to select subjects and sites for "The erection and maintenance of enduring statuary and monuments, in whole or in part of stone, granite or bronze in the parks, along the boulevards or in other public places." The Art Institute also funded Carl Milles's ''Fountain of the Tritons'', which sits in its courtyard, with this fund, but by the 1930s began to tire of standard sculpture and sought a court ruling to include buildings within the terms of the agreement. In the 1950s, they used some of the funds to add a wing to the Art Institute of Chicago Building, named the B. F. Ferguson Memorial Building.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,861545,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081215070735/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,861545,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 15, 2008|title=High Winds in Chicago|access-date=July 17, 2008|date=June 13, 1955|publisher=Time Inc.|magazine=Time}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.artic.edu/aic/aboutus/wip/expansion/index.html|title=1955-1977: Expansion Mid-Century |access-date=July 17, 2008|publisher=The Art Institute of Chicago|year=2008}}</ref> A relief sculpture of Benjamin Ferguson appears on the back on ''Fountain of the Great Lakes''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://brainsnack.net/cpg/thumbnails.php?album=88|publisher=Brainsnack Tours|access-date=July 7, 2008|title=Fountain of the Great Lakes, Art Institute (1913)|archive-date=September 30, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930082006/http://brainsnack.net/cpg/thumbnails.php?album=88|url-status=dead}}</ref> The fund also commissioned the recognizable ''The Bowman'' and ''The Spearman'' sculptures by Ivan Meštrović on opposite sides of Congress Parkway at Michigan Avenue and in Grant Park.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/webportal/portalContentItemAction.do?contenTypeName=COC_EDITORIAL&contentOID=536938117&topChannelName=HomePage|title=Ivan Mestrovic (The Bowman and the Spearman)|access-date=July 18, 2008|publisher=City of Chicago}} {{Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref> The fund has commissioned the ''Illinois Centennial Memorial Column'' in Logan Square by Lincoln Memorial architect, Henry Bacon, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Illinois' statehood.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://quickproxy4.chipublib.org/imrjL168/url=http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:NewsBank:CSTB&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=0EB37362D33E53CF&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&req_dat=C23BE832E46446E3AEC1CCAEBDEAF5AE |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725164615/http://quickproxy4.chipublib.org/imrjL168/url=http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:NewsBank:CSTB&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=0EB37362D33E53CF&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&req_dat=C23BE832E46446E3AEC1CCAEBDEAF5AE |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 25, 2011 |title=Public statues are lumberman's legacy to city |access-date=March 18, 2009 |date=August 9, 1991 |work=Chicago Sun-Times |author=Hermann, Andrew }}</ref> At the same time in 1918, the Fund commissioned a replica of the ''Statue of The Republic'' in Jackson Park to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Chicago World's Fair. <ref>https://webapps1.chicago.gov/landmarksweb/web/landmarkdetails.htm?lanId=1428</ref> One of the more recent fundings was Louise Bourgeois's black granite ''The Waltz of Hands'' Jane Addams Memorial in 1996;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://quickproxy4.chipublib.org/imrjL168/url=http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:NewsBank:CSTB&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=0EB4233FF2A15B4E&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&req_dat=C23BE832E46446E3AEC1CCAEBDEAF5AE |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725164701/http://quickproxy4.chipublib.org/imrjL168/url=http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:NewsBank:CSTB&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=0EB4233FF2A15B4E&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&req_dat=C23BE832E46446E3AEC1CCAEBDEAF5AE |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 25, 2011 |title=Museum's new bronze 'Spider' isn't exactly garden variety |access-date=March 18, 2009 |date=September 30, 1997 |work=Chicago Sun-Times |author=De LaFuente, Della and Rich Hein }}</ref> however, the management of the fund has come under question in the 21st century.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chicagoartcriticsassociation.org/P/n04.html|title=The Art Institute's Ferguson Fund Must Always Be for Public Sculpture|access-date=July 17, 2008|publisher=Chicago Art Critics Association|work=The C.A.C.A. Review|date=April 2004}}</ref> Ferguson lived in the Jackson Boulevard District of the Near West Side community area of Chicago, where he built a red brick Queen Anne house in 1883 that took up three city lots.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.architecture.org/tour_view.aspx?TourID=34|title=Jackson Boulevard|access-date=July 17, 2008|publisher=Chicago Architecture Foundation|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090710063113/http://www.architecture.org/tour_view.aspx?TourID=34|archive-date=July 10, 2009|df=mdy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.chicagomag.com/Radar/Deal-Estate/June-2007/New-on-the-Market-a-Three-Mansions/|title=New on the Market - Three Mansions |access-date=July 17, 2008|date=June 21, 2007|magazine=Chicago Magazine}}</ref>
thumb|right|200px|Ferguson's grave at Rosehill Cemetery
Ferguson died at his home in Chicago on April 11, 1905 and was buried at Rosehill Cemetery.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-1905-obituary-for-benj/55532700/ |title=Obituary: Benjamin F. Ferguson |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |page=4 |date=1905-04-12 |access-date=2025-11-12 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
The ghost town of Ferguson, South Carolina, named after Ferguson, contained the mills operated by the lumberman and his partner.<ref name="Ferguson"/>
==Notes== {{Reflist|2}}
{{Chicago}} {{Ferguson Fund works}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferguson, Benjamin}} Category:1905 deaths Category:Philanthropists from Illinois Category:Businesspeople from Chicago Category:Year of birth missing Category:Burials at Rosehill Cemetery