(4 July 1852-31 Dec. 1933), manufacturer, inventor. Born at St. Elmo East, GC. Parents: Donald Ferguson and his wife Margaret MacGregor. As a lad, he helped haul brick for the building of the Gordon Church at St. Elmo, and in accordance with the custom of the time and place he worked in shanty in his early years. In 1915 at his house in Maxville he had a reunion of shantymen, including himself and his father, who had worked together in the lumber woods 48 years before. James Ferguson was a farmer at St. Elmo East before moving to Maxville in 1884 (date 1881 also found).

     He built his first threshing machine while still on the farm at St. Elmo, then at Maxville he established himself as a well-regarded manufacturer, important especially locally, of threshing machines. His earlier threshing machines were operated by sweep power, i.e., by horses walking in a circle driving a gear. Afterwards the machines were powered by horses walking on a treadmill. Such machines were known as “tread powers.” The original treadmill-operated machines would turn in only one direction but Ferguson invented and patented a means of making them reversible. From about 1910 gasoline engines supplied the power. The company came to be known as the Ferguson Thresher Company and the machines were called the Ferguson Threshing Machines. The threshing machines were widely known and widely used throughout the easternmost part of Ontario, with some sales elsewhere. In 1930, there were even sales to British Columbia and Nova Scotia. (Glengarry News 22 Aug. 1930) The company, which represented Maxville’s one serious venture into manufacturing, always remained small. A new factory building was built in 1928.

     Ferguson himself was a man of strong character and strong opinions. His obituary in the Glengarry News, almost certainly by T. W. (Tom) Munro, noted that “In the discussion of local history and economic problems his trenchant pen quite frequently found expression through the columns of the metropolitan dailies.” The obituary also stated that Ferguson was “widely known as one of Glengarry’s prominent Scotchmen, and a Gaelic scholar of note.” The designation scholar, used in GC in connection with Gaelic, signified that the person in question had gone beyond a spoken command of this largely oral language to master its written form as well. James Ferguson died at his home in Maxville. (two children) Presbyterian. He was associated with the fraternal society called the Sons of Scotland, and served as a president of the Highland Society of Glengarry. He was a strong supporter of the temperance cause. On 9 June 1885 he was married to Catherine Sinclair (1857-1941), who was born at Athol in GC. Their son Donald (Dan) Ferguson was associated with his father in the Ferguson Thresher Company.

Glengarry News 5 Jan. 1934 * Maxville (1991) 104-105, 131-132, 553-555 * Rae Ferguson (his grandson), “The Ferguson Thresher,” Glengarry Life 1996 * biog. for Agricultural Wall of Fame, GN 9 Sept. 1992 * life of James Ferguson GN 3 June 1938 in Thomas W. Munro’s “I Remember” series * Maxville (1967) 9-10, 52-53 * MacGillivray & Ross 387, 433, 458 * 1915 reunion: Glengarry News 29 Jan. 1915, Cornwall Freeholder 28 Jan. 1915, GN 24 June 1927, GHS Sixth Annual Volume (1966-1967) * stories from James Ferguson in “Old Time Stuff” column Ottawa Citizen repr. GN 24 June 1927, CF 29 Nov. 1930 * letter to editor of Ottawa Citizen repr. CF 16 April 1930, on social issues, evidently by this James Ferguson * his letter to editor Farmer's Advocate 22 Jan. 1931 on pioneer GC plows * Rhodes Grant, i, 108 *marriage: Down the Lane column Standard Freeholder 10 June 1944 based on CF 12 June 1885 * obituary of wife, SFH 14 Feb. 1941 * obituary of wife’s brother, Finlay Sinclair, farmer, of South Dakota, SFH 11 May 1934 * has taken out patent for improvement of horse power threshing machines, Cornwall Reporter 21 May 1881 * exhibits “two horse treading mill” at Central Canada Exhibition, Ottawa, GN 27 Sept. 1901 * patents new tread power with reversible motion, GN 13 June 1902 * Ferguson threshing machines mentioned, GN 12 Feb. 1904 * to build house, GN 3 June 1904 * enlarging plant, GN 12 Nov. 1915 * sells thresher to Dominion Experimental Farm, GN 31 March 1922 * building new showroom, GN 5 May 1922 * advert. for J. Ferguson, “Agricultural Machine Manufacturer,” of Maxville, C. R. Sinclair (perhaps Charles R. Sinclair of present dictionary) being “Manager, ” Glengarrian 4 March 1887 * illustr. adverts. for the Ferguson Thresher Company, GN 12 Aug. 1927, 5 Aug. 1932 * his paper on settlement of Fergusons in Kenyon Township read posthumously to meeting of SDG Historical Society, SFH 7 Feb. 1934 * recollections of the Ferguson Thresher Company, Winter GN 6 Nov. 1991 & 24 July 1996