280                 HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY


    So sparse was the population, and so uncultured were those who had
been born west of the Alleghany mountains, and who had already grown
to manhood and womanhood, at the time of James Ferguson’s birth, that
society and civil government had scarcely an existence. There was then
no school nor church nearer than sixteen miles. In 1810 the first acces-
sible schoolhouse was built without a sawed board, a nail, iron hinge, or
pane of glass. The teachers of that day knew but little, which their pupils
acquired but very slowly under their instruction. Books were but few
and far from being suggestive to children. " When about ten years of
age,” said Mr. Ferguson, “I chanced to get hold of a "Manual of Astron-
omy," which I read and reread until I believed it. But few others did
believe it. With a ball of yarn for a globe, a knitting-needle for an axis,
and a candle for a sun, I worked out some of the easier problems.” With
but meager aid from his teachers, by his own persistence and efforts,
the subject of this sketch acquired some of the principles of surveying,
which he learned to reduce to practice by several days’ observation in
the woods in association with a surveyor at work.
    At twenty years of age, he started in life on his own account, equipped
with a broad-ax and whipsaw. Want of means to clothe himself and to
procure books, pressed him into the service. He soon after went to Cin-
cinnati to make sale of some lumber, and while there took a contract to
build a pork-house, and, though unfamiliar with the use of tools, executed
the work with credit to himself. Shortly after this, he erected a second
and similar structure. Later, he made a design for a flouring-mill and
saw-mill, which he built from the stump, the first mill ever erected in
that section of the country. He worked at his trade at intervals for many
years, serving in the meantime as county auditor one term, and deputy
clerk, sheriff and treasurer of Clermont county. He then purchased the
Ohio Sun, at Batavia, becoming its publisher, manager and editor. After
four years’ successful work in the managerial and editorial departments
of the Sun, he was compelled to retire on account of failing health. Soon
after his retirement, he took the census of Clermont county, then engaged
in farming, and later planted a small fruit orchard, meeting with success.
However, he soon returned to the business of contracting and building,
continuing in this till 1846, when he was attacked with dyspepsia, which
made him an invalid for four years. After recovering his health suffi-
ciently, he was appointed inspector and superintendent of the manufac-
turing of leather mail-bags at Cincinnati, besides having charge of the
distribution of mail for ten of the northwestern states. He was thus em-
ployed for two years, removing then to Miami county, Ohio, and entering
one hundred and sixty acres of land, which he improved, and where he
resided until 1856, when fire destroyed his house. He then accepted the
position of mail agent over the Bellefontaine Railroad, remaining thus
employed one year, then retiring on account of ill health.
    Soon thereafter he came to Clay county and began the improvement
of the land which he had entered. in the year 1837, in what is now Sugar
Ridge township, onto which he moved his family in 1860.
    In the month of June, 1837, he married Nancy L. Corbly, of Hamil-
ton county, Ohio, who died in 1841, leaving one daughter. On the 10th
of September, 1851, he married Miss Susan Mitchell. Three children
were born to them, two of whom survive, Miss Arwilda Ferguson, of
Brazil, and Isaac M. Ferguson, who resides on the family homestead,