324 FERGUSON, HUBBARD “HUB” often delivering speeches to local civic groups. He lives at Glencairn Farm, which has been in his family for generations. Ferguson, Bruce. Interview by Laurie Wilcox, September 14, 2005, Union, Ky. Warner, Jennifer S. Boone County: From Mastodons to the Millennium. Burlington, Ky.: Boone Co. Bicentennial Book Committee, 1998.
Laurie Wilcox
FERGUSON, HUBBARD “HUB” (b. December 18, 1889, Gallatin Co., Ky.; d. June 18, 1954, Gallatin Co., Ky.). Gallatin Co. sheriff Hubbard Ferguson, the son of William and Julia Sanders Ferguson, disappeared on the night of June 18, 1954. He owned a farm that was located between Lick Creek and Park Ridge Rds. near Sparta, Ky., and had visited the farm’s tenant at the farm earlier that evening. Ferguson’s abandoned car was found on Park Ridge Rd. the next day, and his gun was missing from the car’s glove compartment. His friends organized a search party, and hundreds responded; but it was not until two farmers noticed that their horses shied away every time they disked weeds near a certain section of Eagle Creek that the sheriff ’s dead body was found. Ferguson had been shot above the right ear, and a heavy railroad tie plate had been tied around his neck. The motive was a mystery. County judge Earl Spencer said, “Hub just wasn’t the type of man to get into trouble.” Ferguson lived alone in an apartment in Warsaw. He had separated earlier from his wife of 30 years and had been divorced only a year before his death. The Gallatin Co. News described him as “not the most popu lar man in the county, but the least disliked.” Various news reports characterized him as a loner, a nondrinker, and not a ladies’ man. More than 25 persons were given lie-detector tests, some as suspects, some merely to get good information, but none of those tested provided suitable leads. More than 200 people were questioned. The gun was never found. Former Gallatin County News editor Charles Adams argued that the death was a suicide, but most of the authorities and citizens in the community believed foul play was involved. The murder remains unsolved. Hub Ferguson was 64 years old at the time of his death and was survived by one son. He was buried at the Warsaw Cemetery. Kentucky Death Certificate No. 11175, for the year 1954. “Year-Old Slaying of Gallatin County Sheriff Still Unsolved,” KP, June 26, 1955, 1.
Bernie Spencer
FERRIES. Ferries, among the first public utilities in the United States, played a major role in the history of Northern Kentucky, even before Kentucky became a state. They provided the link to Indiana and Ohio for westward expansion, economic development, and the growth of roads. Winthrop Sargent, the territorial secretary and sometimes governor of the Northwest Territory, signed many
ferry licenses for Kentucky before it gained statehood, such as the license for a ferry at Limestone Landing (now Maysville). American Indians crossed rivers with various types of ferries. Each Indian tribe had certain specific design features that suited its conditions for use. In general, though, if an individual or a small group needed a ferry, a collapsible skin boat was made. These boats could be constructed in about two hours by sewing three or four deerskins together over a frame. For larger groups, the birchbark canoe was the most popu lar, but dugout or elm-bark canoes were also used. The dugouts were made from oak, pine, or chestnut wood. The Indians would cut a tree down and then use fire, hot stones, and gouging to shape and hollow the log into a dugout canoe. Each dugout canoe took 10 to 12 days to complete and could hold from 3 to 40 people. As the early white settlers moved into the Ohio River Valley, they used dugout canoes too, as well as pirogues and flat-bottomed boats, for river crossing. The first small ferries that carried passengers could be paddled, rowed, or poled in the shallow waters when the river was low. Sail-propelled scows were another type. However, sail ferries were notoriously unreliable, because the winds often did not blow when needed or in the right direction to push the ferry across the river. At narrow crossings, many of the early ferries were flatboats, about 45 feet long; one man would pull the boat with a rope or wire stretched from bank to bank. The rope ferries worked very well, as long as the rope could be kept above the water. The cable was first stretched across the river, and the front of the ferry was attached with a sliding hitch. The current would exert force on the drifting back end and push the boat against the current. However, rope exposed to the weather over a period of time was likely to break. It snapped usually when the strain was heavy, such as when spring rains brought strong currents and floodwaters. At such times, passengers and ferryman could only hope that as the flatboat and all on board floated downstream, the boat would drift to either shore, not far below the landing place. In the 19th century, wire replaced the rope used for ferries. Wire ferries were inexpensive, easy to operate, and simple. Horses and buggies were able to make the trip in sufficient time, and the operation of these ferries was easier on the operator’s back than using poles and oars. By 1819 the horse ferry, also called a teamboat, was introduced on the Ohio River. In that year, a large boat propelled by eight horses was in ser vice at Maysville. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant wrote about that ferry in his memoirs. Horse boats were long and wide enough that some were operated with as many as eight horses. The horses, usually blind (or wearing blinders), worked in a treadmill well in the back of the boat. The treadmill was attached to paddlewheels, one on either side of the ferry. Two horses, walking in place on opposite sides of the tread-wheel, generated enough power to turn the two side wheels. The driver sat in the back close to the horses but also near enough to the stern that
he could control the direction of the boat with a long sweep or oar. If the pi lot wanted to go faster, he would tell the deckhands to grab the horses’ tails, causing them to walk faster and pull harder on the treads. Rowing the horse ferry was next to impossible on a windy day. Therefore, sails were used. However, if the current was swift and the wind in full force, sails could create a problem by diverting the ferry to a point far below the landing. It took several good horses per day to operate a busy ferry. The hulls of the horse ferries were usually made of oak. Some were framed with straight boards of oak that were cut across their width, steamed, and then bent on a mold to the proper shape. A Royal Navy shipwright in England, William Hookey, developed the technique of sawing, steaming, and bending timbers for frames. As the number of travelers increased, steam ferries replaced the horse-propelled ferries. The original paddle side-wheeler steam ferries were built to accommodate a lighter volume of horsedrawn vehicles. Then when most of the ferry traffic consisted of larger and heavier vehicles, the sideloading boats were replaced with end-loading vessels and new causeways to make loading and off-loading easier. End-loading allowed the vehicles to load at one end of the vessel and unload at the other. Such ferries were double-ended and able to proceed equally well in either direction. Later, diesel electric propulsion became more efficient and replaced the steam ferries. Early ferry licenses were granted to individuals, and licensees were directed to meet certain expectations, such as keeping a passable road leading from the ferry. Because there was little traffic in the early days, ferries did not run every day, but as settlements developed, ferries developed a schedule. The early ferries were called by the owner’s name, such as Dufour’s Ferry and George Ash’s ferry. Later they were named for a family member or a location, such as the Martha A. Graham or the Ohio (River). In early years, the license was granted to run only one way across the river, so some ferry owners bought land on both sides of the river in order to have a more profitable business. At first, the local county courts determined the toll rates. Gallatin Co. Order Book B described the change in ferry rate for a ferry on the Kentucky River near Carrollton on June 11, 1810: “The rate of Thomas Carraco’s ferry will be nine pence for a man and horse and four pence and half penny for a single horse instead of rates established at the last court.” Since the water could be treacherous with floating ice in the winter, the rate could be increased. For instance, Gallatin Co. Order Book B stated on January 13, 1812: “Ordered the owner of the ferry across the Ohio, opposite the mouth of Kentucky, be allowed 37 1⁄2 cents for taking a man and horse across the river during the three winter months.” The Kentucky legislature later set the fees that could be charged. Ferrymen were not allowed to charge a toll for mail stages, funeral processions, or ministers. The first ferries were spaced fairly close together when travel was by oxen, mules, or horses,