Eralsey Clark Ferguson (1892-1967)

From the 1955 New Hampshire State Register and Manual.

   There were few men more prominent in New Hampshire politics in the 1950s than Eralsey Clark Ferguson, a Merrimack County resident who served eight years in the New Hampshire House of Representatives and two terms in the state senate, holding the position of Senate president in the 1957-58 session. Ferguson would go on to be a Republican candidate for Governor in 1958 and later served three years as chairman of the New Hampshire Milk Control Board. Truly a man of political distinction! A native of Michigan, Eralsey Clark Ferguson was born in Detroit on October 5, 1892, the son of John Gilbert and Mary (Clark) Ferguson.

  Relocating to New England with his family at a young age, Eralsey Ferguson would be a student in the Brookline, Massachusetts school system, and in the early 1910s enrolled at Amherst College in Massachusetts. Graduating in the class of 1916,  Ferguson was granted the opportunity to go overseas as an English and history teacher shortly after leaving Amherst, and for a period taught at the American Mission School in Madera, India. Following his return stateside, Ferguson removed to New York City to take work at the National City Bank, and after a brief period in their employ returned to Massachusetts, where he worked for a short time in the Bethlehem Shipbuilding yard in Squantum. Ferguson married in Newton, Massachusetts in October 1918 to Gertrude Zeiss (1894-1956), to whom he was wed for over thirty years. The couple would have two daughters, Elizabeth Clark (1919-1993) and Nancy. 

   Following a stint as a leather salesman in Boston, Eralsey Ferguson decided to go into business for himself, and in 1920 established a shoe shop in the city of Lynn. By 1924 he had relocated his shop to New Hampshire, and after "combining forces" with an existing shoe factory in Pittsfield sold his business prior to the stock market crash of 1929. After leaving that business, Ferguson took work as a bond salesman with the Chase Security Corp., and later the H.M Sawyer and Sons rainwear manufacturing company of Cambridge. He would purchase an interest in the last-named business and after selling out in 1941 returned with his family to Pittsfield, New Hampshire, where he had kept a home for a number of years prior. 

   After his return to Pittsfield Ferguson worked at farming and first entered the political life of that town in the early 1930s, winning election as a town selectman. He would serve in that capacity from 1933-35 and later was elected as Pittsfield's delegate to the New Hampshire Constitutional Convention that was to be held in May 1948. The 1948 election year proved to be an important year for Ferguson, and in that same year announced his candidacy for a seat in the New Hampshire House of Representatives. In November 1948 Ferguson and fellow Pittsfield Republican E. Harold Young defeated their Democratic opponents and in January 1949 took their seats.

  In addition to various committee assignments during his freshman year in the house, Ferguson was profiled in a substantial write up in the June 16, 1949 edition of the Nashua Telegraph, where he was interviewed about the inner workings of the legislature from the vantage point of a freshman representative. Amongst comments regarding committee work and certain representatives being "specialists in their field", Ferguson would relate that

"I entered this legislature as a freshman with some pre-conceived notions as to what I would find. I have been more than pleased as to what I have learned. The house is not run by a small clique. It is a body of rugged individuals with minds of their own who decide questions for the most part on their merits."

From the Nashua Telegraph, June 26, 1949.

   Ferguson would win a second term in the statehouse in November 1950 and during the 1951-53 session earned the nickname "Frugal Fergie" due to his opposition to a house resolution that aimed to "give legislators, governor, and council a daily newspaper of their choice at state expense of $2,900". Ferguson's efforts against the resolution eventually paid off, and the resolution wasn't passed. Following his successful campaign for a third house term in 1952, Ferguson announced his candidacy for the New Hampshire state senate in mid-1954, and in the September Republican primary won the election, defeating Andrew Nicoll by a vote of 1,717 to 1,096. On general election day in November, Ferguson won out at the polls, besting Democrat Edgar Bellerose by over 800 votes. 

  Taking his Senate seat in January 1955, Ferguson later won a second Senate term in 1956 and in that same year was elected by his fellow senators as Senate president, serving in that role until 1958. This term would also see Ferguson announce his candidacy for Governor of New Hampshire in May 1957, running on a "pro sales tax platform." In early 1958 he further detailed his platform, proposing:

• A two percent sales tax with liberal exemptions, to raise an estimated minimum of $10,000,000 
• Repeal of a $5 head tax
• Repeal of the tax on livestock
• Repeal of the stock in trade tax

From the Farmington News, May 2, 1957.

  Ferguson's gubernatorial aspirations were dashed in September 1958 when he lost out in the Republican primary, polling just 1,162 votes against winning candidate Wesley Powell's total of 39,761. Powell, in turn, would go on to win the governorship that November, and later served two terms, leaving office in 1963. 

  Following his defeat for Governor, Eralsey Ferguson served as chairman of the state Milk Control Board from 1959-1962 and ran for a fourth term in the New Hampshire legislature in 1960, but was defeated. He fared better in the 1962 election year and would hold his seat from 1963-65, afterward removing to Scottsdale, Arizona. Widowed in 1956, Ferguson remarried a year later to Madeline Dane (1901-1975), who would survive him upon his death, which occurred in Scottsdale on November 25, 1967. He was later cremated and returned to Pittsfield for burial at the Floral Park Cemetery.

From the Farmington News, November 30, 1967.