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| Members of the Class of 1961 take a break from "selling ads for the yearbook" at Finley's on a balmy April afternoon. From left to right Charles "Tink" Casada, Haskell Sullivan (driver), Sonny Denney (with face covered), Dolphus Price (black coat), Elwood Durham, Bobby Hamm (front passenger seat with face partially obscured), Johnny Cundiff (in back), Dickie Ford, John Raymond Beasley, Billy Fowler, Leonard Taylor, Lois Ann Young, Sue Coomer, Norma Galloway and Sandra Muse. Elwood was not in the Class of 1961, but had snuck out of school to grab a Finley Burger & Fries for lunch and ended up in the picture because he was a friend of Haskell. Haskell's red and white 1955 Chevy Bel Air convertible was one of the snazziest cars in Ferguson during his time in high school. It had naugahyde seats, one of the first stereo car radios, and a V-8 engine. It was a common sight at Finley's all year and at the local drive in movie during the Summer months. |  |
Anyone with photos to share should scan them into their computer and email as attachments to Omlordw@aol.com. Names and dates help. |
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Washing their cars in May 1961 are from left Charles "Tink" Casada, Herbert Beasley, Tommy Wheeler (holding hose), Billy Fowler (in the back, leaning on the hood of the Ford), Bryan Morrow, Bobby Hamm and Leonard Taylor (far right and back, behind the Ford). The cars are, at left, a 1955 Pontiac and, at right, a 1954 Ford Fairlane. The Pontiac, brand new in 1955, cost $2100. Used, in 1960 it cost $600. The Fairlane cost $1800 new in 1954 and used in 1961 it cost $350. A high school student could earn enough in one Summer working in tobacco, in one of the local plants, in timber, or on the railroad, to buy a car, and most did. |
| Patti Dykes maneuvers her 1957 Ford Fairlane out of the parking lot past the white 1957 Chevy Impala (to her right) and blue and white 1956 Buick (to her left). Parked in the shadows in the back are a '55 Chevy, 1954 Studebaker and 1956 Dodge. This photo was taken out the study hall window on the second floor, looking down on the space soon to be filled with the new administrative office complex. The students are leaving school on a September 1959 Friday afternoon. Patti's Fairlane was considered a very stylish car because it was one of the first "hardtop coupes," so named because there were no side pillars between the front and rear windows. This was supposed to give it the appearance of a convertible while retaining the warmth and comfort of a hard top. Notice on the rear bumper the license plate bracket is offset to the right, another sporty option. Ferguson students of the 59-60 school year debated constantly whether Patty's Ford, the white Chevy Impala, Haskell Sullivan's Chevy, or the 1951 Shoebox Ford was the hottest car in town. |  |
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L to R Sharon Hughes, Sharlene Barnes and Barbara Meece pause in front of the Nightmist Blue 1951 Shoebox Ford. This Ford was much smaller than the newer cars most students drove, but handled much better on winding country roads and got much better mileage. It was the car favored by Pulaski and McCreary County moonshiners, who would build a second gas tank under the rear seat and use the original gas tank to carry their illegal cargo down to Knoxville over Route 27. This particular car, however, was pampered for a decade and in September 1959, when this photo was taken, it was in showroom condition. |
| Six well known characters pose for a photo on a September 1959 afternoon. From L to R : Carl Yahnig, Donnie Cowan, Gerald Nicholas, Frankie Dyer and Jimmy Young. Kneeling is Bert Minton. |  |
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David Keith, Marilyn Yahnig and Peggy Lovins pause on the way home after another day of school. They are standing to the side of the building near the fire escape. |
| Ain't Love Grand? On the left are Jimmy Young and Peggy Cope. On the right are Edna Caldwell and Jimmy Cundiff. Holding the license plate over the car is Gordon Blevins. This is the same 1951 nightmist blue Shoebox Ford that appears in several other photos. By this time, October 1959, it was eight years old and not as large or plush as the newer cars some Ferguson kids drove. It came without a radio, power brakes or power steering. It was available only in a three speed stick shift. The girls considered it difficult to drive. But it was still the fastest and best handling on back roads and a lot of guys kept watching the used car lots, hoping to buy one. |  |
Ferguson Dedicates State Of The Art GymnasiumSomerset Commonwealth |
October 15, 1928-----Ferguson School dedicated its magnificent new $19,000 gymnasium yesterday to a capacity crowd of 800. Built by local contractor George Elliott, the building is the finest basketball facility in the 12th Region except for the Centre College Field House, which hosts the annual State Tournament every March. The Ferguson Gym will become the home of the 47th District Tournament for the foreseeable future, it being unlikely any other school in the county will surpass it for a long time. The gym is of red brick, with a balcony above the west end of the basketball floor and a basement underneath the entire floor. The basement includes rest rooms, dressing rooms, lockers, showers, furnace room and coaching offices. The playing floor is of maple. It is 96 ft. by 55 ft., making it the largest high school floor in the state and actually equalling a standard college floor. The main building is 110 feet long, with a 45 ft. wide porch and ticket windows added to the front, facing Jacksboro Road. There are three half circle arches, one over each entrance and one over the large window. Braces and main beams are in place to add balconies on both sides, allowing for future expansion. |
Six large windows border each side of the main floor, placed high enough to be above those potential balconies. Five steel trusses arch 30 feet above the floor, providing more clearance than even the Centre Field House. Six windows line each side of the basement, with two along the front under the porch. The lighting over the playing floor is very bright, and additional lights illuminate the entries, porch and basement. Rows of raised seats line both sides of the floor, each extending end line to end line. Perhaps the most memorable feature of the entire building is the electric scoreboard. The first of its kind in the region, the clock, scores and even the quarters are controlled by an operator seated at midcourt. There is no need for a student to stand on a ladder and turn wheels or use chalk and eraser. Players and officials will appreciate the end zone clearance. There is a full five feet from the edge of the playing surface to the wall on both ends, a welcome relief from those many gyms where the walls are the out of bounds lines and the backboards are mounted flush with the walls. All in all, the gym is a great advance for basketball in Pulaski County and the 12th Region. |
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The 1960-61 Ferguson Warhorses. L to R, front row: Eldridge LaFavors, Charles Norfleet, Joe Wheeler, Howard Hunt, Sammy Bell, Jerry Wallace. Back row : Coach Herb Childers, Larry Stephens, Carl Yahnig, Gerald Nicholas, Donnie Cowan, Michael Simpson, James Hughes. November 1960 was the beginning of Ferguson's last great basketball golden era. The Warhorses won two straight district titles and were stopped barely short of the State Tournament both years. This team went 26-7, lost only one game in the county, never lost at home, and was twice ranked first in the 12th Region. They won by scores like 79-48 over Stanford, 74-34 over Burnside, 83-42 over Shopville and 72-48 over Buckeye. Only a 51-49 loss to Danville kept Ferguson from a trip to Memorial Coliseum. |
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| Most photos of the school or the gym are from the front, but this angle shows the side and rear of the main building. Notice Mr. Copenhaver's 1953 truck, a well worn but reliable vehicle familiar to all Fergusonians in the 1950s. At this time, the administrative annex had not yet been built. There's a swing set barely visible along the right side of the photo. |  |
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The 1961-62 Ferguson Warhorses finished 28-8 and won a second straight district title, beating Somerset 47-45 in the finals. They won by scores like 85-24 over Mackville, 74-40 over Eubank, 69-29 over Danville Bate, 77-36 over Burnside and 67-35 over Pulaski. A heartbreaking loss to Somerset in the 12th Region kept Ferguson from the State Tournament. From row, l to r : Bert Minton, xxx, Bobby Cundiff, Howard Hunt, Joe Wheeler, Kerry Cowan, Melvin Cox. Back row: Asst Coach Bob Overby, Jerry Wallace, Carl Minton, Eldridge LaFavors, Mike Simpson, Gerald Nicholas, Donnie Cowan, Larry Stephens and Coach Herb Childers. |
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 Blondie9 at the Christmas Pageant in 1961 |
| Ferguson School, March 1960. This is the last known photo of the school before the administration/ home ec/ cafeteria annex was added to the right. The classrooms and library are to the right, with the auditorium to the left. To the rear on the second floor are additional high school classrooms over the auditorium. In 1960, although Ferguson was a small school, this was the largest high school auditorium in the 12th Region. As small schools were consolidated into large county schools in the 60s, larger facilities were finally built, surpassing it. However, this remained the largest stage in the region until the school closed. Architects worked with drama experts from Centre College and Eastern Kentucky State College in designing both stage and auditorium, one of the state's finest performing centers when new. |  |
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This is the Ferguson varsity football team of 1929. Their home field (and practice field) was between the school and the road. There were no bleachers. There were 16 boys on the team and they played an eight game schedule. |
| The Ferguson varsity basketball team in 1927. They had eight boys, the standard roster in those days. The shirts were made of wool. Teams only played 18 games back then, and this team won 15. There were 16 high schools in Pulaski County, and the district tournament took all week to play. |  |
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Ferguson players pose after winning the district title at the Somerset High School gym in March 1929, beating Somerset 44-40 in the finals. Both the district winner and runnerup went on to regionals, where there was a blind draw for seedings. In the first game of the region, Somerset and Ferguson drew each other again. Ferguson won 40-38. But in the regional semifinals, Stanford beat Ferguson 43-39. The Warhorses finished the year 19-4. Backboards were wood, and the foul lane was only half as wide as it is now. After each team scored, a jump ball was held at center court to determine possession. |
| Gays Service Station might not look like much here, but it was one of the main cultural centers of Ferguson in the fifties and sixties. Kids not only came here for gas, but to work on their cars, buy inner tubes to take down to Pitman Creek, buy an RC Cola, or smoke a cigarette. If you wanted to find someone, you usually started here. Looking out the door is Marla Cooper Durham. Playing outside is Wayne Durham. |  |
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| We cropped the parent's name from this note, but it reminds us that life in the 1960s was hard for many families. Homes were beginning to have indoor bathrooms, but many students came to school without gloves or warm winter coats. Vacation trips were rare. Christmases were sparse. Field trips and basketball trips were the only travelling many students did. |  |
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The annual field trip to Mammoth Cave. This photo is taken at the Historic Entrance just prior to the three hour underground tour. The two rangers with the park service hats led the group. This trip was held in May but the jackets and sweaters they are wearing are because of the year round 60 degree temperatures underground. Most Ferguson students had never been in a cave before this tour. From 1920 to 1960, Ferguson held annual field trips to Cumberland Falls, Cumberland Gap, Mammoth Cave, Washington D.C. and Fort Lauderdale, Fla. As the school moved into the 1960s, it began cutting one of these trips a year until by the 1966-67 school year there were none. The Mammoth Cave trip was not overnight; they left Ferguson at 7:30 a.m. and returned after dark. |
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In the fifties, the annual Lake Cumberland Spring Festival served as the Pulaski County qualifier for the Miss Kentucky Pageant. There was a parade, followed by a tea, banquet, talent competition and judging. Over the years, several Ferguson girls had won the local contest and gone on to the statewide pageant in Lexington, some placing as high as first runnerup but none ever becoming Miss Kentucky. In May 1959, Shirley Colyer was one of Ferguson's all time strongest contenders. Beautiful, talented and poised, she is shown here during the parade. Back at school she was also class president, captain of the cheerleaders, and winner of numerous academic honors. |
| Home Economics Class. Many of these older photos were made with a type of film called tintype, which were fine when first made, but do not hold up well over time and do not scan well into a computer. Here the girls can be seen hard at work at their sewing machines. L to R Carley Mayfield, Shirley Colyer, Linda Hodge, and Lois Ann Fisher. At sewing machines L to R are Marsha Haney and Geraldine Miller. |  |
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Mrs. Cowan's third grade classroom. This would be the final class to graduate from Ferguson High. |
Typing Class. 1st Row L to R Marlene Hodge, ?, ?. 2nd Row L to R Sandra Meece, Lida Jones, Darlene Maiden, Norma Galloway. 3rd Row L to R Judy Chitwood, ?, Peggy Sears. 4th Row L to R Sue Guy, ?, ?, Jerry Meece. 5th Row L to R Carolyn Love, ?, James Nelson, ?. Mostly girls took typing in hopes of landing jobs as typists, secretaries and executive secretaries after graduation. Before the computer, all businesses had to maintain skilled typists, who could type over 100 words a minute without any errors. Competitions were held for speed and accuracy. Girls had to learn to maintain their typewriters and manipulate mimeo and ditto masters and other devices. As the school's major sponsor, the Southern Railroad hired the top four or five girls every year for its own secretarial pool in the 30s, 40s and early 50s. |
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Biology Class. Notice it is all boys. For many years, Ferguson linked Biology and PE courses and taught them separately. While the girls were in the gym, the boys would be in Biology, then they would switch. This allowed all boys and all girls PE classes, then allowed boys and girls to receive separate teaching during the parts of Biology that dealt with sex and reproduction. In this picture, a forest ranger has brought in several live snakes to liven up a unit on reptiles. Until 1960, Ferguson ran very strong science programs and brought in a continual series of guest speakers to demonstrate everything from birds, insects and fish to motors, guns and electricity. During the 40s and 50s the annual stop of a Southern Railroad train behind the school so the students could peek inside the engine and see how everything worked was a big tradition. The railroad, which funded the school, needed all the engineers and scientists it could get and, indeed, many boys and a few girls from Ferguson went on to careers in science and engineering. By 1960 this had begun to fade. |
| Lida Jones was as big a star at Ferguson as any of the basketball players. She was a 1961 graduate who was gifted academically and won a long list of awards plus being president of her class. She was an outstanding writer and speaker. Back in the fifties and sixties the state sponsored various writing and speaking competitions on special topics. Lida won competitions with her essays, and for delivering a powerful speech beginning with the words, "I Speak For Democracy," in which she explained to the audience exactly what it meant to be an American. At a time when Ferguson and Somerset were battling over which school was academically the best in the county and the region, students like Lida were treasured. Somerset had the children of doctors, lawyers and other professionals. For Ferguson to be able to take the children of railroad, forest service, drilling, timber and other blue collar workers and have them equal or surpass their cross town rivals showed that the school by the tracks was a good place to be, that its teachers were at least doing as good a job, and that they might even be doing a better job. Since Ferguson, as an independent school district, needed to attract transfers from the city and county, this public perception was critically important. Ferguson had a long history of success in debate, science fair, music, drama and other competitions. No one realized at the time that Lida was the last of this 40 year tradition. The school stopped coaching students for these competitions, stopped sending them off to the events, and began losing its reputation as a top academic institution. Parents from Burnside, Mt. Victory, Shopville and Somerset stopped sending their kids to Ferguson, and its enrollment began to decrease. Six years later, this would prove fatal. |  |
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The Ferguson Board of Education during the mid 1950s. Longtime Ferguson resident Ralph Duncan, who himself in the 1960s served on the board and eventually became chairman, believed this was the strongest superintendant and board the school ever had. They administered the school during the last years of its Golden Era, which ran from 1940 through 1960. During their tenure Ferguson was the strongest school in the region academically, athletically and financially. It was almost more like a private academy than a public school. From Left to Right, front, are Chairman Lee Vaughn, Superintendant Orville Swearingen, and John Compton; rear Sanford Hamilton, Wayne Sears, and Claude Percellis. Orville Swearingen was twice named Kentucky's Outstanding Superintendant. Longtime Ferguson teachers and adults insisted that had they been able to keep Swearingen for another decade or two, the school would never have gone into decline. His philosophy was that a small school was the best school because of the individual attention each child could receive, and he made sure every teacher gave every child that attention. He interviewed as far away as Atlanta and only hired the very best. |
| Ferguson had a lot of beloved teachers over the years, but the most beloved of all was Margaret Cowan. During most of her career she taught third grade. Mrs. Cowan graduated from Eastern Kentucky University and went on to earn a Masters Degree and Specialist of Arts degree from the University of Kentucky. Parents and administrators appreciated her for the tight discipline she maintained in her classroom. But she possessed a tremendous mastery of her various subjects, and considered it her personal crusade to make sure every one of her students left third grade thoroughly skilled in each. She was convinced every student had a gift in something and was determined to find out what it was and encourage that student to develop it. Margaret Cowan was recognized on various occasions as one of the outstanding elementary school teachers in the county, region and state. Sidney Simandle of the Kentucky State Department of Education wrote in a 1960 evaluation of Ferguson that one of the reasons Ferguson High School students performed so well on tests of basic skills was that they had such a strong grade school background, and Margaret Cowan was the foundation of that program. Mrs. Cowan took a special interest in students from disadvantaged backgrounds. She called it "her missionary work." Her value to Ferguson extended beyond her own classroom. She took new teachers under her wing and advised and mentored them during their first teaching years, thus influencing the entire elementary school. |  |
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Varsity cheerleaders pose in November 1955. From left are Mary Lou Edison, Marcella Sears, Marsha Haney, Shirley Colyer and Elizabeth Ann Jones. This cheerleading squad was voted best in Pulaski County. Four years later Shirley Colyer would become a Miss Kentucky candidate. |
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1956 Ferguson senior trip to Florida. It was a small class, with 17 graduating after several married, went in the army, or went to work on the railroad. They held a pie supper, bake sale, slave work day, and other fund raisers to pay for the trip. The Florida trip was a tradition for 40 years. The beach, deep sea fishing, shopping, seafood, and tanning were highlites. |  |
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Ferguson's foundation was the Southern Railroad in the age of steam engines. This 2-6-2 engine was one of the Southern's greatest ever, but it had a limited range. It needed complete servicing in a fully equipped rail yard. The Southern built one of those yards in South Somerset and renamed it Ferguson after the chief executive. The Ferguson Yard employed 600 men at high salaries and full benefits, working them seven days a week. Since few people then owned vehicles, men and families needed to live within walking distance. The railroad built four additional blocks of small frame houses in South Somerset and renamed the community Ferguson. The school at Somerset did not offer bus service so the railroad built its own along the tracks at the south edge of town. During the 1920s, 30s and 40s, in some years the railroad hired every boy graduating or dropping out except for those entering the armed forces. A Ferguson boy with the grades could have his way paid to college if he majored in engineering and signed a binding contract to work for the railroad. |
| Boys without the math skills but manual dexterity could attend the railroad's own school in Knoxville and earn certification as a machinist, returning to Ferguson for a very good paying career. Even high school dropouts could begin as "gandy dancers," workers with strong backs and good hands who rode small "gang cars" up and down the tracks checking for flaws or rough spots and repairing them. A boy could begin that way and work his way up, perhaps by his mid 20s qualifying for machinist school or even the engineer program in Chattanooga. 27 Ferguson graduates eventually became locomotive engineers, the most glamorous job on the railroad. The railroad's retirement and health care programs were so good the US government used them for the model for Social Security and Medicare. During the 1930s and 40s the Ferguson Yard was at its peak. During World War II Southern trains were hauling troops and military supplies. During the decade after the war the nation was converting back to a consumer economy and railroads hauled the autos, appliances and other goods people had done without for 10 years. |  |
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But in the 1950s two trends meant decline for Ferguson Yard. First, the automobile replaced the passenger train as the favorite means of transportation. This reduction in passenger trains meant less Chicago - Atlanta - Miami traffic, and fewer locomotives needing serviced. Even worse, diesel engines shown at left replaced big steam engines. Diesels could run from Cincinnati to Chattanooga without servicing, so Ferguson Yard was obsolete. 600 jobs fell to 400, then 200, then 100, 50 and finally the yard closed altogether. Ferguson's main reason for being was gone. Many of the men were offered jobs in Knoxville, Chattanooga, Cincinnati or Atlanta by the railroad, but in leaving they took their children with them. Ferguson enrollment began slipping. |
| L to R Front Muse and Yahnig, Rear Helton and Minton (no first names available) in April 1909 on the main line South of Elihu. These are adults, but later many Ferguson high school graduates or even dropouts often began their railroad careers as "gandy dancers." Four man crews operating out of the Ferguson Yard maintained the rails south to the Tennessee state line and north to Stanford. They would hand crank this little machine along the track, checking proper alignment, ballast, tie quality, and other details. When they found anything amiss, they would dismount and repair it. if they found problems with bridges, road crossings or tunnels they would return to the Yard and file a work order for a major crew to proceed to the area and make the repairs. A Ferguson gandy dancer worked seven 10 hour days a week, but started at $6000 a year when the average American male earned $4000 - $5000 a year. Like all railroad workers, he received complete medical, dental and retirement benefits and if he were injured on the job he received full disability pay. Today these machines have roofs and gasoline engines, but they still carry a crew of four. |  |
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| Darrell Kennedy, Nancy Atchley and Joetta Whitaker Kennedy pause for a photo at the 2008 Somerset Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony in freezing temperatures on a December evening. Nancy and Joetta both attended Ferguson from first grade on and were members of the Class of 1968, the last class to graduate from the high school. |  |
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| Howard Moore in his superintendant's office in May 1960. This is the man the original Topix thread was named after. Mr. Moore replaced Orville Swearingen as Ferguson's chief administrator. He was considered a fine administrator, and was generally liked by students, teachers and parents. This photo is taken in the old office, upstairs in the main building. The new administrative annex had not yet been built in 1960. Mr. Moore's official title was actually "Supervising Principal." He was both principal and superintendent of Ferguson School grades 1-12. The state would outlaw that dual role, requiring that different men hold the positions of principal and superintendant. Ferguson would name Bob Overby principal and H. T. Higgins superintendant. |  |
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The Ferguson Graduating Class of 1959. For four decades the school held its graduation ceremonies in its beautiful auditorium, one of the nicest in the 12th Region. On three occasions Ferguson experimented with outdoor graduations on the lawn in front of the school, but worries about the weather and the feeling that the auditorium could be decorated in a classier manner always caused them to move it back inside for several more years. They finally gave up the idea of holding them outdoors and for the last 10 years used the auditorium. This '59 class was very small, with only 17 seniors. The state had a rule that for a high school to stay open it had to have 100 students in the upper four grades, meaning at least 25 in each class, so years like this pulled Ferguson below that number. Anyone who can provide names for this photo is asked to contact us. |
Anyone with photos to share should scan them into their computer and email as attachments to Omlordw@aol.com. Names and dates help. |