The Ferguson clan from Corroneary

This Times Past column by Jonathan Smyth recalls the family of Sarah and Samuel Ferguson who emigrated to Canada...

Recently, I picked up a book about the family of Samuel and Sarah Ferguson, formerly, Hooey, of Corroneary, Knockbride. I discovered the copy had once belonged to the Cavan historian Tom Barron. Clarence H. Ferguson, the book's author, sent it to Tom in acknowledgement of the research he carried out on the family. In 1990, an updated version of the history thanked Barron for undertaking the job of researching Clarence’s ancestors who moved to Canada in 1821.

Throughout the nineteenth century settlers in Canada received amazing opportunities. They could buy more land than they could have dreamed possible back in Ireland. Schemes encouraged Irish families to make a fresh start in Canada, the United States, and Australia and they were enthusiastically advertised with great success. The new settlers brought fresh ideas that helped reshape and enhance the societies they became part of and today their descendants proudly claim Irish and European ancestry. As an old Irish proverb reminds us, we all live in each other's shadow and there is no getting away from that.

In the early decades of the 19th century, Samuel Ferguson and his family emigrated to Canada; they departed from Corroneary, between Cootehill and Knockbride. The story of Ferguson’s family is preserved in a pleasantly detailed publication, called, ‘The Descendants of Samuel Ferguson and Sarah Hooey, 1817-1965.'

The genealogy of the Ferguson and Hooey generations, compiled by Samuel’s great grandson, includes a fascinating account by an ancestor named Robert J. Ferguson about his relatives' early history from the time they left County Cavan to when they settled in Canada. Robert J. Ferguson was Samuel's grandson. An updated version of the book is titled, ‘As For Me: And My House: The Story of Samuel Ferguson and Sarah Hooey and Their Descendants, 1788 - 1990’, by a great grandson Clarence H. Ferguson.

The introduction states: ‘We owe a great debt of gratitude to Thomas Barron, a retired teacher and historian in Ireland, who gave generously of his time and abilities in the research that identified further ancestors in Ireland. We are most grateful for his kindness in undertaking this research for us.’

When the original book came out, Clarance explained that Robert was a son of Samuel T. Ferguson (who himself was Samuel and Sarah’s son). Robert was a friendly man, but slightly deaf, according to Clarence, and when he called, he was always fun to be around. He remembered Robert arriving on a ‘good horse’, and the second thing he remarked on was Robert’s trusty ear trumpet; it being the only hearing device available, since there were no hearing aids in them times. Many things in the lives of the Ferguson descendants would change in each generation to follow when people no longer visited relatives beyond the immediate family like the way that they once did in the 1920s.

Samuel’s great grandson lamented how by the 1960s Irish Canadians were becoming disconnected with the history of his or her ancestors. With these changes in mind, he felt appreciative of Robert Ferguson's efforts to place on paper the early history of the family from the time they left Ireland, to their eventual arrival in the Canadian Township of Cavan, County of Durham.

Robert Ferguson’s notes

In 1788, Samuel Ferguson was born at Coroneary, Knockbride, about three miles from Cootehill, Co Cavan, wrote Robert. His neighbour and the love of his life, Sarah Hooey, married him in 1817. Two children followed. James and Jane were born to the Fergusons while living in Coroneary, prior to taking the emigration boat, which sailed for six weeks to Canada. When they arrived, the family transferred to a canal boat pulled by a horse and were ferried ‘up the St Lawrence’. It took a lot of money to travel from Ireland to North America and, finding the finances had depleted, the family were forced to spend a year in Quebec as Samuel took jobs to rebuild savings.

In the following year, they finally made it to the Township of Cavan, Co Durham, where they bought 200 acres of forested land, which Samuel then had to clear. The trees had to be felled and chopped, and the ‘brush cleared’. They built wood into piles and, when they cleared land, it was necessary for it to be gone over again to remove any remaining brush, which was then stacked and burnt.

Samuel and Sarah stayed on this farm for 14 years where another nine of their children were born. In addition to James and Jane, Robert lists the younger siblings as Joshua, Margaret, Samuel, Sarah, Susan, Robert, Eliza, Joseph, and Mary. In 1836, the Fergusons had sold up the property in Cavan Township and purchased a 200-acre farm in Cartwright and, by the early 1840s, Samuel bought more lots, eventually increasing the size of the farm to 1000 acres. He added that their youngest child William was born at Carwright.

The Fergusons were of Presbyterian faith and would have attended Coroneary Presbyterian Church when they lived in Ireland. The earliest known Presbyterian church erected at Cartwright was a simple log cabin built and opened in 1845, and Robert informs us that the Rev James Douglas journeyed to Cartwright from Cavan Township every six weeks to tend his flock.

Samuel held a great interest in Church affairs, and it is said that the first Sunday School in Cartwright was held at his house. Samuel and Sarah were neighbourly folk who always showed a readiness to aid the needy. In Robert’s account, Samuel is described as a liberal, but strong temperance man, and even though stern in character, he remained just and fair to all. Tragically, two of Samuel and Sarah’s children died young; Robert died at 22 years old, and Joshua was only 14 years old. The 1965 edition of the book contains 117 pages and contains the names of several generations of Samuel and Sarah’s descendants.

Gatherings

It is heartening to hear of families keeping in contact with each other. Clarence Ferguson was proud of the annual Ferguson reunions, which began in 1938 where the clans could ‘meet and have fellowship’ amongst themselves. These opportunities to gather consisted of an annual picnic in Durham County, but by 1961 a second ‘picnic’ began in Ontario where the descendants are numerous.

To keep the ever expanding family tree together, it was decided to alter the format for the get together. Clarence wrote that they all agreed to annual meetings in their own home territories but that on the fifth year ‘that one large reunion be held and relatives from a distance be encouraged to attend'.

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