Ferguson, A. P. (Abbie Park), 1837-1919

Abbie Park Ferguson was born in Providence RI in 1837. She attended public schools in Whately, Masschusetts and learned from her father, Rev. John Ferguson, who was a congreational minister. Ferguson graduated from Mount Holyoke Seminary in 1856. After teaching public school in Connecticut, in 1869 she went to Paris to teach and travel with two American girls. She and the girls were caught between the French and German armies in Geneva during the Franco-Prussian War and were forced to stay in Switzerland for a few months. In 1871, Ferguson returned to Connecticut and worked in city missions. At the invitation of Rev. Andrew Murray, she and Anna Bliss, class of 1862, sailed to Cape Town, South Africa in the fall of 1873, and in 1874, they founded the Huguenot Seminary in Wellington, Cape Colony, South Africa. Huguenot Seminary was the first institution of higher learning for women in the country, and it was modeled after Mount Holyoke Seminary in many ways; it was "a first class Ladies' Training College" that offered education at a moderate price. Ferguson's brother, Rev. George Ferguson lived with her in Wellington from 1877 to 1896. When not teaching, Ferguson traveled a great deal, visiting Scotland, England, Switzerland, Holland, Egypt, Palestine, the United States and the East coast of Africa. With Freguson as president, Huguenot Seminary became a college in 1898, and it began awarding bachelor of arts degrees to students. Ferguson received an honorary M.A. and Litt. D. from Mount Holyoke College. After retiring in 1910, she worked with alumnae and formed a Women's Interdenominational Missionary Committee for South African churches. Ferguson died at Heguenot in 1919.