A man's quest for a ball field

It will be 45 years old this July. The piece of dirt gifted to the city for the use of a park laid dormant by the railroad tracks It was turned into a ball field for kids by a vision and labor of love by one man who couldn't stand the though of young boys not getting a chance to play baseball

Ray Bledsoe was relatively new to Howe in 1970 The Sherman High School graduate and Burlington Industries worker had moved his family to Howe in 1964 along with many others during the Sherman Industrial boom from FM 902 to FM 1417 in the 1960s and 70s. His efforts to give the youth of Howe a ball field delivered thousands of kids to be able to play baseball for nearly half a century on that very field.

The opening of Ferguson Field didn't come without a major tragedy as a TP&L (Texas Power and Lights) worker lost his life due to electrocution while installing the lights for the field which filled the little ballpark with tears on its grand opening and a dedication to the young man

The property which houses the park was once a grain elevator owned by the Ferguson family who once made Howe famous as the largest shipping center of grains in Texas. Upon the closing of the bricked elevator, the company dismantled it brick by brick and dug a hole and buried all of the bricks in the ground where the current field rests. The land sat empty for years but was gifted to the city with the designation that it had to be used as a park and when it did, it had to be named Ferguson Park

Fast forward to 1970 and Bledsoe was named commissioner of the Howe Youth Baseball organization That changed the future of that property to this day

"We only had three teams, a pony continued on Page #6