Mid-West Pioneers: Fifty Years in the Northwest http://www.ancestry.com/ancestry/search/3791.htm MORRISON COUNTY. page 471 Morrison county was named in honor of Hon. Allen W. Morrison, who came to Minnesota some time in the ‘20s, and was [p.471] prominent in the early history of the Territory. It was organized April 18, 1856, by the election of the following county officers: Commissioners, Wm. Trask, Elliott J. Kidder and W. W. Stebbins; register of deeds and clerk of board of commissioners, Nathan Richardson; judge of probate, James FERGUS; sheriff, Jonathan Pugh; district attorney, W. B. Fairbanks; assessors, W. B. Tuttle and John Fry. - -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----ROYALTON VILLAGE page 475 James FERGUS was born in the parish of Glassford, Lanarkshire, Scotland, Oct. 8, 1813. His parents were well-to-do farmers, and gave him a good education along with excellent moral and religious training. In his youth he was noted for his thoroughness in whatever work he undertook and his fondness for good books. At the age of nineteen years he came to America to improve his fortunes, locating first in Canada, where he spent three years, and learned the trade of a millwright. Becoming involved in some political troubles just before the outbreak of the Papineau Rebellion, he left Canada for the United States, and spent a couple of years in Green Bay and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and at Chicago and Buffalo Grove, Illinois, going thence to Iowa, and thence to Moline, Illinois where he found employment in the machine shops and foundries of Buford, Sears &Wheelock. In 1854 he removed to Little Falls, and in company with C.A. Tuttle built a dam across the Mississippi and platted the village. He subsequently owned the site of Fergus Falls, now a thriving city, that has done well in assuming his name. In 1862 he drove his own team from Little Falls to Bannock, then in Idaho, now in Montana Territory. He became prominent in territorial affairs; was influential in the organization of the new county of Madison, and held many positions of trust and responsibility. He was the commissioner [p.475] appointed for Madison county served two terms in the Montana legislature, and was a member of the constitutional convention of 1887. At one time he lived in Lewis and Clark counties; he now resides in Meagher county, near Fort Maginnis, where he is engaged in stock raising. - -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----ROYALTON VILLAGE page 475 Mr. FERGUS was married March 16, 1845, to Pamelia DILLIN, of Jefferson county, New York. Mrs. FERGUS died Oct. 6, 1887. He has one son and three daughters, the latter married and living in Montana.