{{Short description|American politician}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Thompson Benton Ferguson | image = Thompson Benton Ferguson.jpg | birth_date = {{Birth date|1857|03|17}} | birth_place = Polk County, Iowa, US | death_date = {{Death date and age|1921|2|14|1857|03|17}} | death_place = Oklahoma City, US | office = Governor of Oklahoma Territory | term_start = November 30, 1901 | term_end = January 5, 1906 | predecessor = William C. Grimes (acting) | successor = Frank Frantz | spouse = Elva Shartel Ferguson | children = 5, including Walter Ferguson | relatives = John Wilford Shartel (brother-in-law)
}} '''Thompson Benton Ferguson''' (March 17, 1857{{spaced ndash}}February 14, 1921) was the sixth governor of Oklahoma Territory.
==Early life== Ferguson was born on March 17, 1857, near Des Moines, Iowa. The following year, he moved to Emporia, Kansas, with his parents. His mother died in 1860, and his father enlisted in the Union Army at the beginning of the American Civil War. He was raised by his older sister and educated in public schools.<ref name="Meserve" /> He graduated from the Kansas State Normal School (now Emporia State University) at Emporia in 1884, financing his education through teaching.<ref name="EOHC">{{cite web |last1=Everett |first1=Dianna |title=Ferguson, Thomson Benton (1857–1921). |url=https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=FE018 |website=okhistory.org |publisher=Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture |access-date=30 November 2023}}</ref> After finishing college, he was ordained as a Methodist minister and after a short time moved to Chautauqua County, Kansas. There, Ferguson taught school for nine years and married Elva Shartel Ferguson on June 9, 1885, in Sedan, Kansas.<ref name="Meserve">{{cite journal |last1=Meserve |first1=John Bartlett |title=The Governors of Oklahoma Territory |journal=Chronicles of Oklahoma |date=September 1942 |volume=20 |issue=3 |pages=225–226 |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/chronicles/v020/v020p218.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150326180229/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/chronicles/v020/v020p218.html |archive-date=March 26, 2015 |access-date=November 30, 2023}}</ref> Shartel was the daughter of the local newspaper owner and when her father died in 1890, Ferguson took over the paper.<ref name="EOHC" /> Elva and Thompson had five children, but only two survived to adulthood: Walter Ferguson and Tom Jr.<ref name="Elva" />
==Career== In 1889, Ferguson joined the Oklahoma Land Run and staked a claim near Oklahoma City which he later sold and returned to Sedan, Kansas, where he purchased the Sedan ''Republican'' and edited it for two years. In October 1892, he moved to Watonga, Oklahoma Territory and established the ''Watonga Republican'' newspaper which he continued to publish until his death. He was appointed postmaster of Watonga in 1897.<ref name="Meserve" />
President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Ferguson as the sixth Governor of Oklahoma Territory (anecdotally, when Roosevelt offered Ferguson the position via telegram, Ferguson's wife Elva accepted on his behalf without consulting him<ref name=Elva>[https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=FE009 Ferguson, Elva Shartel], by Linda W. Reese, at The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture; retrieved November 27, 2020</ref>) and he assumed the office on November 30, 1901. He served until January 5, 1906. Upon retirement, he returned to his residence in Watonga.<ref name="Meserve" /> He made two notable attempts to return to his public service. He was a candidate for U.S. Representative from Oklahoma in 1907 and the Republican candidate for Governor of Oklahoma in 1910.<ref name="EOHC" />
==Death== Ferguson died on February 14, 1921, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. After a formal tribute in the Chamber of the House of Representatives, presided over by then-Governor James B. A. Robertson, his remains were returned to Watonga and were interred at Watonga City Cemetery.<ref name="Meserve" />
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{cite web |url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/ferguson.html |title=Index to Politicians: Ferguson |accessdate=2008-08-01 |publisher=The Political Graveyard}} * {{cite web |url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~okbits/governors.html |title=Governors Of Oklahoma |accessdate=2008-08-01 |publisher=Rootsweb}} * {{Find a Grave|7942759}}
{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{s-bef|before=William C. Grimes<br>Acting Territorial Governor}} {{s-ttl|title=Governor of Oklahoma Territory<br><small>Under President Theodore Roosevelt</small>|years=1901 - 1906}} {{s-aft|after=Frank Frantz}} {{s-end}}
{{Governors of Oklahoma}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferguson, Thompson Benton}} Category:1857 births Category:1921 deaths Category:Methodists from Kansas Category:Governors of Oklahoma Territory Category:Kansas Republicans Category:Republican Party governors of Oklahoma Territory Category:People from Polk County, Iowa Category:Politicians from Emporia, Kansas Category:People from Sedan, Kansas Category:People from Guthrie, Oklahoma Category:People from Watonga, Oklahoma Category:American newspaper editors Category:Methodists from Oklahoma Category:Candidates in the 1907 United States elections Category:Candidates in the 1910 United States elections