James Fergus, miner, rancher, businessman and politician, was born in 1813 in Lanarkshire, Scotland. He came to the United States via Canada in 1835 at the age of twenty-two. He was trained as a carpenter and a millwright at a Quaker settlement and was involved in building and managing various mill businesses in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota. He married Pamelia Dillin in Moline, Illinois in 1845 and had four children: Andrew, Mary Agnes, Luella, and Lillie. He was one of the founders of Little Falls, Minnesota and later founded Fergus Falls, Minnesota. While in Minnesota, in the late 1850s, Fergus became involved in politics. In 1860, Fergus ventured out of Minnesota in search of gold and returned in 1861. In 1862, he left Little Falls, Minnesota with the Fisk Expedition to the Beaverhead gold mines in a territory that would eventually become Montana. He moved to Virginia City in 1863 and became a businessman and public official. He was elected recorder for the Alder Gulch mining district as well as judge of the first miners’ court, and was appointed the first county commissioner for Madison County.
Fergus had been away from his family since 1862 and was reunited with them in Virginia City in 1864. Hearing news of a new gold strike in 1865, Fergus moved his family to the Last Chance Gulch, which is present day Helena. There he was involved in ranching and was elected two terms as county commissioner and one term in the territorial House of Representatives. By 1870, he had decided to move away from mining and purchased a ranch in Prickly Pear Valley outside of Helena, where he focused on ranching and agriculture for his livelihood. In 1879, Andrew Fergus acquired one quarter of his father’s property, livestock and machinery and entered into a business partnership with him under the name James Fergus and Son. They purchased land in the Judith Basin and raised cattle, horses, and sheep in Armells, Montana. James Fergus continued his political career when he was elected as a delegate to the 1884 Constitutional Convention and to the Territorial Council, where he was instrumental in the creation of Fergus County. In 1895, James Fergus and Andrew Fergus continued to expand their business operation and created a family corporation named Fergus Livestock and Land Company, which grew to be one of biggest ranching operations in central Montana.
At various points, each of the Fergus daughters got married and moved away from home. Mary Agnes married Robert S. Hamilton in 1864, Luella married Stephen C. Gilpatrick in 1865 and the youngest daughter, Lilly Fergus married Frank H. Maury in 1873. Pamelia Fergus died in 1887 and James Fergus died in 1902. Andrew Fergus married Hazel Akley in 1910 and continued to ranch at Armells until his death in 1928. Hazel Fergus became the keeper of the Fergus family history and donated the family papers to the University of Montana in Missoula in 1969.
From the guide to the James Fergus Family Papers, 1834-1967, (University of Montana--Missoula Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library Archives and Special Collections)
