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William and Jeannette Ferry: Presbyterian Pillars in Mormon Utah
William and Jeannette Ferry: Presbyterian Pillars in Mormon Utah
By DAVID A HALES AND SANDRA DAWN BRIMHALL
Colonel William Montague Ferry and his wife, Jeannette Hollister Ferry, were devout lay Presbyterians who were active in the business, political, and religious affairs in Mormon Utah between the 1870s and the first decade of the twentieth century. Col. Ferry and other wealthy and successful businessmen and associates of Col. Ferry from Michigan were drawn to Park City’s mines and the economic possibilities found in the mining district in the 1870s. Collectively, this group was identified as the “Michigan Bunch.” The Michigan Bunch and in particular Col. Ferry and his wife, Jeannette, brought with them a keen desire to improve education and culture to the Intermountain West.1 These “Michiganites who came to Park City in the early days were considered the elite of the town,” according to William M. McPhee, a historian of Utah mining. “They were in good financial standing, members of protestant churches and many were Masons.”2
Ferry Hall, constructed on the Westminster College Campus in 1908 and named for William and Jeannette Ferry.
Col. Ferry, eldest son of Rev. William M. Ferry and Amanda White Ferry, was born on July 8, 1824, on Mackinac Island, Michigan. He had three brothers and three sisters.3
Rev. Ferry, a New Englander from Massachusetts, began his career as a missionary for the United Foreign Missionary Society in 1822, organizing a mission consisting of a church and school on Mackinac Island.4
The family remained on Mackinac Island for twelve years, until Rev. Ferry’s ill health forced him to move to the west coast of Lake Michigan in November 1834. Here, he played a major role in settling the community of Grand Haven, located at the mouth of the Grand River, where he reportedly built the first permanent house in the area and established the first Presbyterian church, serving as its minister for many years. In addition to his religious ministry, he also built the first school and engaged in the lumber, shipping, and banking businesses, becoming wealthy and influential.5
Col. Ferry was a bright, robust child with an insatiable appetite for books and a marked ability to learn languages easily. During the years the family lived on Mackinac Island, he recalled, “My vernacular was the French language, acquired from my playmates, children on the island, the Ojibway [sic] and Ottawa were equally familiar, and the use of the English language a later accomplishment.”6
In Grand Haven, Col. Ferry received his early training in his father’s library, and from the extensive libraries of two family friends. Additionally, he attended the Sanderson Academy in Ashfield, Massachusetts, for one year. There, he studied under Henry L. Dawes, who would later become a U.S. Senator. He also studied for one year at the Kalamazoo Branch of the University of Michigan.7
The Col. was given considerable responsibility at an early age. At fifteen, he managed his father’s lumber business on the Grand River, overseeing large gangs of loggers.8 He also acquired the trade of machinist and engineer under the supervision of Demetrius Turner, an accomplished mechanic, who designed and built the machinery throughout Grand Haven’s waterworks. With this background, Col. Ferry founded the Ottawa Iron Works in 1850 at Ferrysburg, a community which he, along with his brother Thomas White Ferry, were credited with platting. The Ottawa Iron Works manufactured stationary steam engines, marine steam engines, and sawmill machinery.9
On October 29, 1851, William Montague Ferry, age twenty-seven, married twenty-three-year-old Jeannette A. Hollister, the daughter of John Bentley Hollister and Mary Chamberlain Hollister, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.10 The couple enjoyed “an ideal wedded life,” were known as devoted Christians and ardent patriots. The couple would be blessed with six children, two of whom reached adulthood: Mary M. Ferry (Mrs. Eugene Allen) and Kate Ferry (Mrs. George A. Hancock).11
Jeannette, who was born in Romeo, Michigan, on August 31, 1828, had three brothers and one sister. Like the colonel, she came from sturdy New England stock. Her father served as a colonel in the War of 1812, and following the war was a government surveyor who laid out the boundaries of Missouri and Arkansas.12
At age thirteen, Jeannette entered the academy, which later became the University of Michigan. At the time, women were not admitted to higherlevel courses so she finished her education at a ladies’ school, which later became the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York. Jeannette was apparently also gifted in languages. According to TheWestminster Review , “She taught French, understood German and read her New Testament in the original Greek.”13
Jeannette and William Ferry: Presbyterian Pillars in Mormon Utah.
UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Jeannette and William Ferry: Presbyterian Pillars in Mormon Utah.
UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
After completing her education in 1848, Jeannette was invited to teach in Grand Rapids, Michigan, by the Rev. Dr. Joseph Penney, pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church and a former Rochester resident. However, her teaching tenure at the first school was short lived. A year later in November 1849, when classes began in the new “stone school house” in Grand Rapids, Jeannette was hired to serve as an assistant to the principal E. M. Johnson.14
In 1850, Rev. Dr. Francis H. Cuming, who earlier had been named director of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Grand Rapids, invited Jeannette to become principal of the “female department” of the brand new St. Mark’s College in Grand Rapids.”
Edward P. Ferry, a successful mine owner in Park City and brother of William Ferry, encouraged the Ferrys to move to Utah from Michigan.
UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
In addition to her administrative responsibilities, Jeannette also instructed her charges in the Bible and French, and she “was beloved by pupils and parents alike for her charm of person, mind and heart.”15
As the community of Grand Haven grew, Col. Ferry demonstrated a keen interest in civic improvements and in establishing and maintaining good schools. He was a charter member of both the Ottawa County Agricultural Society and the Ottawa Historical Society and was elected to the Michigan legislature in 1857. He also served as the school inspector for the Mill Point education system in 1859 and as a regent of the University of Michigan (1856-1864).16
In addition, he sought to promote religious education and, after becoming president of the Ottawa County Bible Society, he began a campaign to place a copy of the Bible, at a nominal cost or for free if necessary, in every home in the county.17
At the outbreak of the Civil War, the thirty-seven-year-old businessman enlisted on November 24, 1861, as a private in Company B of the Fourteenth Michigan Infantry Volunteers, where he served for the duration of the war.18 Col. Ferry evidently displayed leadership ability early because only seven months after his enlistment, President Abraham Lincoln signed his commission as a captain on June 30, 1862, and as a “Commissary of Subsistence.”19 In the spring of 1863, he was detailed to serve on the staff of Gen. James R. McPherson, Seventeenth Army Corps. Wounded during the July 1863 siege of Vicksburg, Captain Ferry was then placed in command of the Depot Commissary at Memphis, Tennessee. On March 13, 1865, he was brevetted to the ranks of major and lieutenant colonel—the source of the title by which he was known for the rest of his life.20
While her husband was away, Jeannette busied herself with their children. It was a great sorrow to her that her husband was not with her to share the grief when their fifth child, a daughter also named Jeannette Hollister Ferry, age six months, died in 1863, shortly before the colonel was able to return home from the service.21
After the war, the colonel became actively engaged in local and state politics. In 1870, the Democrats of his district nominated him to Congress, but he was defeated. Two years later in 1872, Col. Ferry served as secretary for the Democratic National Convention at Louisville, Kentucky, and made an unsuccessful run as the Democratic nominee for governor of Michigan. A year later, he became a member of the Michigan Constitutional Convention, and in 1876, he was elected mayor of Grand Haven, Michigan. During this period he was offered honorable and lucrative positions abroad because of his mastery of the French language. He never accepted any of the positions.22
The colonel’s father, Rev. William M. Ferry, died on December 30, 1867, leaving a sizeable estate estimated to be worth $410,000. He made substantial bequests to schools, missions, and religious groups; the remaining $273,000 was divided between his widow, who received $128,000, and $145,000, divided among his five surviving children.23 The colonel’s younger brother, Edward Payson Ferry, was named executor of the estate and exercised broad discretion in handling the funds. After investing heavily in mining properties in Utah, Edward moved to Park City in 1873, so that he could be close to his investments.24
The Ferry Home in Park City.
PARK CITY HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND MUSEUM
One of his first ventures was the purchase of the Flagstaff Mine for fifty thousand dollars, which he renamed the Marsac Silver Mining Company. Edward also built the Marsac Mill, also known as the Daly Mill, to process the ore from his and other Park City mines. 25 He also invested in the Woodside Mine, the Anchor Mine, and the American Flag Mine and consolidated these properties on Pioneer Ridge to form the Crescent Mine.
Following the discovery of rich ore deposits in the Park City area, people from many states and foreign countries migrated to Park City, lured by the possibilities of great riches. The early population was a mixture of Irish, Cornish, English, Scots, Scandinavians, and Chinese. Since leaders of the Mormon church discouraged prospecting precious metals, Mormons in nearby communities tended to stick to agriculture and other business pursuits.
Soon after the arrival of David C. McLaughlin, J. W. Mason, and Frederick A. Nims, members of the “Michigan Bunch,” they discovered Park City had never been platted or recorded and that most of the people who had built their houses and businesses in Park City were technically squatters. They then had the town surveyed, prepared legal descriptions, and filed for ownership in the land office in Salt Lake City, after paying the small fee. The opportunists then gave the residents the option of either purchasing the land or vacating it.26 Their actions generated long-standing resentment among fellow Park City citizens, which spilled over to other members of the Michigan Bunch. Two members identified with
the Michigan crowd, Edward P. Ferry was defeated in the mayoral election of 1882 by Park City voters and they also rejected David McLaughlin when he ran for mayor in 1884.27
Miners inside one of the Park City mines.
UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The colonel, now fifty-four, and Jeannette, fifty, and their two living children, Mary and Kate, followed Edward to Park City in 1878 and soon became influential members of the community. 28 Among some of Park City’s much needed improvements, the Ferrys started a waterworks company that supplied water to the town and the ore mills and also built boardwalks on Main Street.29 In addition to supplying culinary water to the residents, the waterworks company made Park City, “second to none in having protection against fire.”30
By October of 1883, the profits from the colonel’s mining interests enabled him to purchase the Walker & Webster Mine for $50,000. His profits from this mine alone were reported to make him about $150,000 per month. Edward Ferry was making equal profits from his Utah and Anchor mines.31 In addition to these holdings, the colonel was one of the original owners of the lucrative Quincy Mine, which later merged into the famous Daly-West mine.32
Unlike most of the mining magnates who built luxurious mansions in Salt Lake City, Col. Ferry built a Victorian mansion which was completed in 1890 in North Park City at the mouth of Thayne’s Canyon. The mansion, with its stained glass windows, hardwood furniture, Nottingham lace curtains and a fireplace in every room which was reputed to be the largest and finest home in Park City.33
The Ferrys, with their wide interests and genial personalities, were extremely popular in Park City. Their residence became known as the “Rest House” for all of the Protestants engaged in educational and religious work in the area. In the summer of 1879, Anna E. Street, Mary H. Wadell, Edward Ferry’s wife, Clara, and Col. William Ferry organized a Congregational Sunday school in Park City. Colonel Ferry was appointed superintendent, while Clara Ferry was one of the school’s “active and earnest helpers.”34 The Ferrys also made generous donations to the Miners’ Hospital and helped to organize a Protestant church.35
Later that fall, Dr. Charles C. Creegan, the Congregational church’s superintendent for the intermountain region, visited the town and found that a group of eighteen was anxious to establish a church. Sixteen were or had been Presbyterians but they were willing to organize themselves into any denomination, provided that it would support them until they were able to stand alone. As a result of Dr. Creegan’s visit, Rev. C. W. Hill was sent to Park City in the spring of 1880, and soon acquired the use of the old schoolhouse for Sunday services and organized the First Congregational Church of Park City. It was incorporated a year later on March 21, 1881, with both William and Edward Ferry signing the articles of association.36
Jeannette also was “always enthusiastically interested in the cause of Christian education.” 37 She served as corresponding secretary of the Woman’s Presbyterial Missionary Society and as president of the Woman’s Synodical Missionary Society. In 1883, she traveled with Rev. Duncan James McMillan to most of the Presbyterian schools south of Salt Lake City. During her travels she offered encouragement and support to the Presbyterian teachers and church leaders. Later in the fall of 1883, she reported on her travel experiences and described the challenges the Presbyterian teachers and clergy faced in Mormon Utah to the Woman’s Synodical Committee of the Board of Home Missions for Michigan at their annual meeting. She closed her report by stating, “I would earnestly commend to your interest and sympathy, and to your prayers, these teachers and their work, these people and their needs. We have a work here at home to do for them. None are too poor to give something for these schools. . . . We owe it to ourselves. . . .We owe it to our Lord. . . .Let it be said of each of us, ‘She reached forth her hand to the needy.’”38
Years later when she was in her eighties, Jeannette published an article in the Presbyterian church’s Home Mission Monthly extolling the success of the mission schools and encouraging Presbyterians nationwide to provide financial and sympathetic support for the cause.She described how the schools were broadening and developing individuality of thought among Utah students who were “taught little else than tenets of the Mormon Church.” Her article also praised the excellent work of early Presbyterian church leaders and teachers such as Sheldon Jackson, John McCutcheon Coyner, Duncan James McMillan, Samuel Ellis Wishard, Mary Moore, and others.39
In addition to her activities with mission schools, Jeannette was a member of both the Daughters of the American Revolution and the United States Daughters of 1812. Additionally, she participated in the antipolygamy and women’s suffrage movement in Utah. During the 1870s and 1880s, Americans were appalled by the practice of Mormon polygamy, which Harriet Pritchard, a national anti-polygamy leader, called “this dreadful dragon of impurity.” Protestant churches actively pressured the U.S. government to take more aggressive measures to abolish polygamy. Pritchard wrote, “National and personal liberty can never exist in a country whose government harbors polygamy, which enslaves the motherhood and degrades the fatherhood, thus making degenerates of their posterity. Polygamy strikes at the heart of the nation’s life when it destroys the sacredness of the home (one father and mother and their offspring).”40
In 1876, Angie Newman, a home mission lobbyist, women’s suffrage leader, and temperance advocate, visited relatives in Utah where she was deeply affected by the plight of Mormon polygamist women. (According to historian Peggy Pascoe, Newman “pushed aside her other causes to devote herself to the establishment of a refuge for polygamous women, taking full advantage of the evangelical and political contacts she had developed over the years.”) 41 In 1883, she obtained $6,500 from the Cincinnati-based (Methodist Episcopal) Woman’s Home Missionary Society to fund the Industrial Home, a refuge for plural wives seeking to escape polygamy. She was greatly encouraged by the support she received from the wives of several Methodist bishops and from America’s First Lady, Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes.42 Although her influence with this group ebbed, she rallied Utah women, including Jeannette Ferry and members of the Ladies Anti-Polygamy Society in Utah, to form the interdenominational Christian Home Association. To expand their financial resources, this society sent Newman to Washington, D.C., to lobby the federal government for more funding. On May 7, 1886, she was granted a hearing before the Senate Committee on Education and Labor, where her impassioned descriptions of Mormon women victimized by polygamy and the need to provide a sanctuary for neglected or discontented polygamous wives and their offspring struck a responsive chord with the committee members. 43 This committee recommended an appropriation of forty thousand dollars, which was passed on August 4, 1886.44
While Congress agreed to fund the Industrial Home, it was less willing to give the Ladies Anti-Polygamy Society financial control, thus revealing the distinction between the women’s political influence , which was considerable, and their political power, which was quite limited. Congress appointed an all-male board of control consisting of Utah’s territorial governor, its Supreme Court justices, and the district attorney.45 The board refused the women’s attempted compromise—that the board would limit itself to endorsing financial transactions while the women managed the home. It was in this conflicted environment that the home opened in
December 1886, with Jeannette Ferry as president. However, other conflicts emerged, including deep disagreements about the eligibility requirements for candidates and even its underlying philosophy.46
The Women's Industrial Home on the southeast corner of 500 East and 100 South in Salt Lake City.
UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Mormon leaders strongly opposed the project and the Woman’s Exponent and church-owned Deseret News published editorials calling on women to demonstrate their love for their husband and their loyalty to their faith by refusing to accept government aid, pointing out that the home was supported by the same Congress that was legislating anti-polygamy laws.47 These newspapers warned that Mormon women who entered the Industrial Home would be “those who are in darkness who have not the Holy Spirit abiding in them.” They also wrote that “Mrs. Newman and the other ladies interested in this institution will find, and Congress will also comprehend in due time, that the offer made them and terms specified will be rejected in the same sort of way as the proposal of His Excellency, Gov. West, to the brethren in the Utah Penitentiary, imprisoned there for conscience sake.”48
At the outset of the operation of the Industrial Home, there was confusion and disagreement between the women who managed the home and the all-male control board. During the first nine months of operation, the home received applications from 154 women and children but the board of control allowed only thirty-three to be admitted. Governor West and the other board members narrowly interpreted the law’s language, which limited entrance “to women who renounced polygamy and [to] their children of tender age.” According to historian Peggy Pascoe, “West interpreted the phrase [in the federal legislation] to exclude many first wives, children of polygamists apart from their mother, and women and children not currently involved in plural marriage, but who home mission women believed might prove susceptible to inducements to enter polygamy.”49
The first report made by the Board of Control to the president late in November 1887 stated that in the months following the opening of the house on November 27, 1886, “it has received within its walls to the present time, of the class prescribed by law, twenty-seven as follows: From December 1886 through February 1887—twelve persons—3 women and 9 children; in the second quarter, six—two women and four children; in the third quarter—eight—four women and four children—also one child born in the House.”50 According to Pascoe, by this time, “the Industrial Christian Home had become something of a laughingstock in Salt Lake City. The battle between the Home Association and the Board had made sensational copy for rival local newspapers.”51
Jeannette fought vigorously to keep the home open, recommending less stringent admissions requirements and more discretion for the manager. She argued in an 1892 report to Congress that the home’s success could not be measured in numbers but pointed out that it was forcing Mormons to take better care of their poor for fear they might enter the home’s open door.52
At one point, in 1893, frustrated that Congress was turning a deaf ear to her pleas, she threatened to return the building to the government with the residents still inside it.53 The Woodruff Manifesto of 1890, which withdrew the church’s support for new plural marriages, caused the national interest in the Industrial Home to rapidly wane.54 Although it still housed about twenty inmates in 1892, “the Commission, in October, admitted failure of the project,” and the home closed in 1893.55
Jeannette soon became involved in another civic cause, the Women’s Athenaeum Club in Park City, which was organized February 22, 1897, with twenty-five members. Jeannette was elected to serve for two years as the club’s first president. The organization set lofty goals “to promote the
welfare of the community” and to seek out “the best things morally and intellectually.”56 During the club’s monthly meetings, members discussed American history, literature, current affairs and education. Members also funded a collection of books that were sent to various southern Utah communities and the club provided books for both the Park City High School library and the public library.57
The Salt Lake City residence of George R. and Kate Ferry Hancock at 444 South 700 East. The home was purchased by Col. Ferry in 1901 and given to his daughter and husband. The first meetings of the Westminster College Womenʼs Board were held in the house.
GIOVALE LIBRARY, WESTMINSTER COLLEGE
Like his wife, the colonel, in addition to his interests in religion and education, also was very active in civic activities and politics. Although he was honored in numerous arenas because of his ardent devotion to the Democratic Party in Utah he also became an aggressive member of the Utah Liberal Party, which worked tirelessly for the separation of church and state. In 1880, he was appointed as the probate judge for Summit County.58 Eight years later, Governor Caleb W. West chose the colonel to serve as a delegate to represent Utah at the International Deep Water Convention in Denver, Colorado.59
The Salt Lake Tribune in its obituary of Col. Ferry recalled that in 1886 the colonel was Utah’s Democratic nominee for Congress. “The [Utah] Liberal party did not make any nominations to the Fiftieth Congress, so Col. Ferry ran for that office on the Democratic ticket.”60 At the time of his nomination, the Salt Lake Tribune supported his candidacy:
Despite this strong endorsement, John T. Caine, a Mormon, defeated him with 19,605 to 2,810 votes.62
Holding strong views concerning the church-state matter in Utah, the two Ferry brothers, William and Edward, travelled to Washington, D.C., in 1888 to testify before Congress against the terms of statehood proposed by the Mormon-dominated territorial legislature. The Ferrys were concerned that, if Utah was admitted as a state, it would be under the total control of the Mormons.63 That same year Col. Ferry was elected to a four-year term as a member of the National Democratic Committee. In 1893, President Benjamin Harrison honored Col. Ferry appointing him alternate commissioner from Utah to the World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago.64
The colonel was the American Party’s candidate for Utah governor in 1904. The American Party was a reaction to Utah Senator Reed Smoot co-opting much of the Republican Party and those political figures who were less inclined to be hostile towards the LDS church’s ecclesiastical influence in state politics. The party held its first state convention at the Grand Theater in Salt Lake City on September 30, 1904. More than two thousand men and women crowded into the auditorium and on the stage, while many hundreds were unable to gain admittance. The Salt Lake Tribune extravagantly termed it “the largest and most enthusiastic state convention ever held in Utah.”65 After accepting his nomination, Col. Ferry followed up with a letter to State Chairman Willard F. Snyder: “I recognize the honor conferred in my nomination for Governor of the State of Utah. I am in full accord with the purpose of the American Party of Utah. The severance of church and state, the maintenance of the integrity of the public schools, liberty regulated and restrained by law—for these principles every American citizen stands. They involve the life and perpetuity of our Republic.”66
Utah’s 1904 gubernatorial ballot included John C. Cutler (Republican), James H. Moyle (Democrat), Joseph A. Kaufman (Socialist), and William M. Ferry (American). Ferry finished a distant third with 7,959 votes followed by Kaufman with 4,892 votes. Cutler won the election garnering 50,837 votes followed by Moyle receiving 38,047 votes.67
Although the Ferrys’ ventures into the political arena proved disappointing, without a doubt, the most lasting contribution that William and Jeannette Ferry made to Utah was their philanthropic support of Westminster College. The Presbyterians first commenced missionary work in the Utah Territory in 1869, twenty-two years after the Mormons arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. Fired by missionary zeal, the Presbyterians were determined to save Mormons from their erroneous ways. Rev. Sheldon Jackson, then superintendent of Presbyterian missions in the Mountain West, wrote enthusiastically in 1869, “There is no section of the globe, there is no people, there is no heathenism existing where God is so dishonored as in Utah by Mormonism.”68
Failing to achieve much success in proselytizing adult Mormons, Rev. Jackson and other Presbyterian congregants decided to take a less direct approach by founding schools in which they could “surround Utah children with Christian influences and lead them into Presbyterian Sunday schools. The children in turn would draw parents and other family members into the orbit of evangelical Christianity.” They believed that, by educating the children, “we will plant a leaven in this Mormon lump which will rend it in pieces.”69
Six months after the First Presbyterian Church in Salt Lake City was completed and dedicated in October 1874, the Presbyterians on April 12, 1875, opened the Salt Lake Collegiate Institute in the church’s basement with twenty-seven students. Within a few weeks, sixty-three students were paying tuition and by the end of the first academic year, June 1876, attendance had reached nearly 150.70 The Salt Lake Collegiate Institute provided elementary, intermediate, and high school instruction under the direction of its first principal, Dr. John M. Coyner, a devout Presbyterian and educator from Indianapolis, Indiana. Its purpose was to provide opportunities for a Christian education and to lay the foundation for a permanent college, patterned after colleges in the East. It was also to provide aid to anyone who needed assistance to secure an education by themselves, and train teachers for Utah and the surrounding areas.71
By 1880, the Presbyterians had built a one-story brick structure specifically for the institute. Several years earlier before Jeannette’s arrival in Utah, she had corresponded with Coyner about supporting the institute; and thanks to her efforts, Michigan women had helped to fund the building’s construction.72 Over the next fifteen years, the growing enrollment dictated more expansions; and by 1895, a four-story building had been erected.73
On March 20, 1892, Dr. Robert McNiece, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Salt Lake City, presented a resolution at a meeting of the Utah Presbytery in Springville, calling for the establishment of a Presbyterian college. The presbytery adopted the resolution and appointed a committee of nine, which later became the board of trustees. Dr. McNiece was elected as president of the board and charged to pursue the resolution.74
In 1895, Dr. Sheldon Jackson offered fifty thousand dollars to endow the proposed college, making three stipulations: “(1) the Bible must be the regular textbook in the curriculum; (2) the college must never be alienated from the work and doctrines of the Presbyterian Church; (3) it must be named and always continue to be known as Sheldon Jackson College.”75 A year later on January 20, 1896, the board of trustees accepted Jackson’s proposal.76
Soon thereafter, John Eaton, former U.S. Commissioner of Education, president of Marietta College in Ohio, and a former general in the U.S. Army, was selected as college president. McNiece was appointed dean of the faculty and instructor. The college, housed in the collegiate institute buildings, opened its doors on September 7, 1897, with six students. Only two students completed the four-year program.
McNiece felt that the college needed its own building. After several proposed locations proved unsatisfactory, he appointed Dr. George Bailey and Rev. Josiah McClain to serve with himself in seeking a suitable location. Eventually they decided on the “New Grand View Addition,” the twenty-two-acre tract where Westminster College now stands.
When someone suggested Colonel Ferry as a possible donor, the committee made an appointment to visit him at the Salt Lake City home of his daughter, Kate Ferry Hancock.77 When the committee asked for contributions, the colonel, “responded: ‘Gentlemen, I cannot do anything for you. My own personal obligations must be met. I am sorry.’ Mrs. Ferry spoke up and said, ‘Well, Colonel, we know we have well in hand our personal obligations . . .’ Dr. McNiece took courage from these remarks and made a second plea saying in substance, ‘Colonel, we three men have given our lives to this work. That is all we have to give. The Lord has given you money. . . .’ As Dr. McNiece and his companions were leaving, Jeannette took them aside and whispered, ‘I think you will get what you are asking for.’ ”78
Interior view of a room in Ferry Hall on the Westminster Campus.
GIOVALE LIBRARY, WESTMINSTER COLLEGE
The colonel asked for “a few days” to consider the matter and three days later, agreed to purchase the land upon the following conditions: “the new land was to be the site of the college, no financial encumbrances were to bear upon the land, the Bible was to be regularly used as a textbook, the teachings were to be in harmony with Presbyterian doctrine, within five years a building costing $25,000 was to be erected, and a portion of the new land was to be set aside for a women’s college building.”79
Several individuals owned the land, requiring extensive negotiations to acquire the complete parcel. On Kate Ferry Hancock’s letterhead and address, “444 South Seventh East Street,” the colonel outlined the property summary:
In response to Col. and Mrs. Ferry’s decision, the Presbyterians bestowed a rare honor on the couple by passing the following resolution on April 2, 1902:
In addition to providing the land for the new campus, Col. Ferry stipulated that a women’s board of directors be appointed to oversee issues related to the construction of the women’s building and related affairs. He wrote, “I reserved the privilege of naming the directors subject to the approval of the said trustees, also, that said directors of the women’s college should be empowered to name their successors as occasion might require, subject of course, to the approval of the Westminster College Board.”81 The letter also contained the names of the twelve women he recommended for the first board. The list included his wife, Jeannette Ferry, and his two daughters Mary Ferry Allen and Kate Ferry Hancock.82
In compliance with Col. Ferry’s wishes, the women’s board held its first meeting on March 21, 1903, at the Salt Lake City home of the Ferrys’ daughter Kate Ferry Hancock. A year later, on March 15, 1904, Col. Ferry donated one thousand dollars to support the board.83
The colonel also earmarked funds to construct the first building, Converse Hall.84
Westminster students on the west side of Ferry Hall with Converse Hall in the background to the north.
UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
He also served briefly as a charter member and vice-president of the college’s board of trustees. Before construction began, however, the colonel died on January 2, 1905. Although he was eighty, his death was unexpected. His funeral, said to be the largest held in Park City, took place at the Ferry mansion where the colonel was eulogized as “a man of wide affairs and large interests” who was “devotedly Christian and ardently patriotic.” One eulogist praised him for his “strong principles and integrity” and stated that “his death creates a noticeable vacancy in Park City, where he lived, in Salt Lake City and throughout the State of Utah.”85 The Westminster Herald:
Quarterly Bulletin of Westminster College noted, “During his whole life, Col. Ferry was a man of affairs, and a natural leader in any enterprise with which he was connected.”86 Friends accompanied the cortège to the Union Pacific Depot, and the coffin was transported to Grand Haven, Michigan, for burial in the family plot at Lake Forest Cemetery. The Hancock Post No. 4, G. A. R., Park City of which he was a member wrote of him: “[Ferry] proved himself an able and righteous defender of the Union during…the Civil War…[and] was at all times Christian like, noble and philanthropic citizen, a loving and devoted husband and father, a sincere and magnanimousfriend and a great lover of all goodness.”87
After her husband’s death, Jeannette divided her time between her Park City home and another home she purchased in Redlands, California.88 She worked tirelessly with the woman’s board to oversee the construction and management of the women’s building on Westminster campus. By this time the woman’s board had a firm foundation.
At a board meeting on April 17, 1906, Jeannette presented the following resolution:
Although the college had not raised its entire portion of the cost, the cornerstone of Ferry Hall, which was to serve as the women’s dormitory, was laid on July 21, 1908. Jeannette personally troweled the first mortar into place beneath the stone, “and made suitable remarks.” Although Jeannette moved to Redlands in her later years, she served as president of the Women’s Board of Westminster College—Mary and Kate were also members—and corresponding secretary of the Presbyterian Synodical Society of Utah, until her death. The Ferry women “remembered the college from time to time with gifts of money, furniture, and many articles which were of practical value, both in the buildings and on the campus.”90
Jeannette died on November 4, 1917, at the age of eighty-nine at her Redlands home, and was buried in the Grand Haven family plot. According to her obituary, “she maintained her keen interest in current affairs up to the last… She contributed great grace of person and sweetness of disposition with strong and virile qualities.”91
A memorial service for her was held on November 6 at Westminster’s chapel, where eulogies were given by Rev. Josiah McClain, a member of the board of trustees, and Dr. William M. Paden, synodical missionary for Utah. The faculty and students at Westminster College adopted a resolution of tribute and regret honoring Jeannette as a “strong leader and a tender friend,” which was sent to her daughters.92
The resolution also paid tribute to Col. Ferry, acknowledging the couple’s generous financial support and masterly leadership in championing traditional Christian values through their involvement in the Presbyterian church, education and politics during the thirty-nine years they lived in Utah. “The memory of such [lives] should be a priceless heritage to students and friends” and “should stimulate others to take a similar interest and build upon the spendid foundations so wisely laid.”93
NOTES
David A. Hales is a retired librarian from Westminster College, now teaching in China at Nanjing University. Sandra Dawn Brimhall is a writer and history enthusiast living in West Jordan.
1 Wallace K. Ewing. “Michigan Bunch,” A Topical Directory of the History of the Northwest Ottawa County, 8th rev. (electronic edition only), February 2005, 92, http://www.loutitlibrary.org/ewing_topics.pdf; Sally Elliott, “Park City’s Michigan Bunch,” Park City Record, June 24, 2000. The “Michigan Bunch” consisted of James M. Barnett, Dr. R. M. Barrow, Edward Payson Ferry, Col. William M. Ferry, Harvey J. Hollister, James W. Mason, David C. McLaughlin, Frederick Augustine Nims, W. V. Rice, and Lewis Hinsdill Withey. Biographical information can be found about all of these men, except Rice, in Wallace K. Ewing, A Directory of People in Northwest Ottawa County , 8th rev. (electronic only), http://www.loutitlibrary.org.ewing_people.pdf. (Accessed February 2005.) Only the Ferry brothers, McLaughlin, Mason, and Nims actually moved to Park City where they made their fortunes. Nims and Mason returned to Grand Haven, Michigan. McLaughlin, an attorney, remained in Utah and became very active in business and mining. See Hal Compton and David Hampshire, “Park City” in Colleen Whitley, ed., From the Ground Up: The History of Mining in Utah (Logan: Utah State University Press, 2006), 321-22.
2 William M. McPhee, The Trail of the Leprechaun: Early History of a Utah Mining Camp (Hicksville, NY: Exposition Press, 1977), 85. Col. Ferry was a Mason, and a large number of Masons participated in his funeral procession in Park City.
3 The name William Montague Ferry presents some confusion. Ewing identifies the colonel as “William Montague Ferry II” and his father as “William Montague Ferry.” Leo C. Lillie, Historic Grand Haven and Ottawa County (Grand Haven, MI.: n. pub., 1931), 120, calls the Col. William Montague Ferry Jr. The Grand Haven (MI) Tribune, January 5, 1905, and the Park Record, January 7, 1905, also gives the colonel’s middle name as ‘Montague.” The colonel’s younger brother, Edward, named his son William Montague Ferry, which is probably the source of some of the confusion despite the difference of a generation. To avoid confusion between father, son, and nephew, we consistently refer to the main subject of this biographical article as “Colonel Ferry,” even though he did not acquire the title until 1865. Edward was born in Grand Haven, Michigan, on April 16, 1837, and died in Los Angeles, California, on March 11, 1917. He moved to Park City, in 1873. William and Jeanette arrived in Utah five years later in 1878.
4 Daniel H. Evans, “Living and Dying in the Lord: Sermon Delivered on the Occasion of the Funeral of Rev. William M. Ferry, in Grand Haven, Michigan, January 11, 1868”; In Memoriam: Funeral Obsequies on Occasion of the Death of Rev. William Montague Ferry, born in Granby, Mass., September 1796, Died in Grand Haven Michigan, December 30, 1867 (Detroit: Tribune Job Printing Establishment, 1869), 10, 11. Copy in the possession of the authors. The Rev. Ferry was licensed and ordained by the Presbytery of New York in 1822.
5 Ewing, A Directory of People, 417.
6 Charles C. Goodwin, As I Remember Them (Salt Lake City: Salt Lake Commercial Club, 1913), 317.
7 “William Montague Ferry,” in Burke Hinsdale, History of the University of Michigan with Biographical Sketches of Regents and Members of the University Senate from 1837 to 1906 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1906), 187.
8 Ibid.
9 William Montague Ferry, Ottawa’s Old Settlers, 577. Copy in the possession of authors. Available in Making of America: Michigan Historical Collections, vol. 30, 572-82.
10 “The Homegoing of Mrs. Ferry,” Utah Westminster 4, no. 3 (1917): 2.
11 “Remains Are Brought Here for Burial: Mrs. William M. Ferry, Pioneer Resident, Will be Laid to Rest in Old Home,” Grand Haven Daily Tribune , November 12, 1917; (1) Mary M. Ferry was born February 27, 1853, and died in Los Angeles, on March 20, 1933. David H. Seibold, Grand Haven: In the Path of Destiny: A History of Grand Haven, Spring Lake, Ferrysburg and Adjoining Townships (Spring Lake, MI: D-2 Enterprises, 2007), 40. She was an active participant in Utah women’s organizations, serving as the Worthy Grand Matron in the Order of the Eastern Star, Stage Regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution and was signally recognized by that society in being elected honorary State Regent for life. See “Mrs. Mary Allen Called by Death,” Redlands Daily Facts (Redlands, CA) March 21, 1933; (2) Kate Harwood Ferry was born July 11, 1856, and died in Salt Lake City on March 1, 1940. See “Mrs. Kate Harwood Hancock,” The Utah Westminster, August 1940, 4, and George Rattle Hancock, State of Utah Death Certificate, State Board of Health File No. 1282. Both women were charter members of the Westminster College Women’s Board. Kate Ferry Hancock also served on the Westminster College Board of Trustees. She was the first woman to be appointed to the board in 1913, and served as a member until her death in 1940.
12 “The Homegoing of Mrs. Ferry.”
13 “Fiftieth Anniversary: Col. and Mrs. William Ferry of Park City Give a Brilliant Reception to Friends,” Salt Lake Tribune, October 30, 1901; “The Homegoing of Mrs. Ferry,” 2.
14 Rebecca L. Richmond, “The Snow-Haired Girls of Old Grand Rapids,” Grand Rapids Press , November 29, 1917; Albert Baxter, History of the City of Grand Rapids, Michigan (Grand Rapids, MI: Munsell & Company, 1891), 221.
15 Richmond, “The Snow-Haired Girls of Old Grand Rapids”; Baxter, History of the City of Grand Rapids, 244, 296.
16 Ewing, A Directory of People, 417. Ferry was also a member of the following societies: The Loyal Legion in the commandery of the State of Michigan, the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, the Muskegon Lodge and the commandery No. 2 of the Knights Templar. See Sally Elliott, “Mines, Mills and Moguls,” 1. Unpublished manuscript in possession of the authors.
17 Ferry, Ottawa’s Old Settlers, 579.
18 Ibid.
19 Ewing, A Directory of the People, 132.
20 Lillie, Historic Grand Haven and Ottawa County, 310. See also U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles about William M Ferry, Record of Service of Michigan Volunteers 1861-65 Union Blue: History of Mollus Heitman: Register of United States Army 1789-1903. Family Search, October 28, 2009.
21“Remains Are Brought Here for Burial,” Grand Haven Tribune, November 12, 1917.
22 “Col. W.M. Ferry,” Park Record, January 7, 1905; Ewing, A Directory of the People, 132; Goodwin, As I Remember Them 320
23 Seibold, Grand Haven: In the Path of Destiny, 39.
24 According to Seibold, Grand Haven: In the Path of Destiny, Edward’s use of estate funds for his “freewheeling speculation” eventually caused a rift in the family. In 1903 Henry Hall, husband of Col. Ferry’s sister, Amanda, filed a petition requesting Edward P. Ferry be removed as administrator of Rev. Ferry’s estates, arguing that Edward was incompetent. After lengthy litigation in the lower courts, the matter appeared in the U.S. Supreme Court that ruled that Edward owed his father’s estate $915,000, but by then Edward had been declared mentally incompetent and was confined to a sanitarium in Park City. As a result, the management of the Ferry estate passed to his two sons, William Montague (Mont) Ferry and Edward (Ned) S. Ferry. Ned, a Salt Lake City attorney and counsel in the family’s lawsuit, became despondent following the Supreme Court ruling and reportedly committed suicide. Mont Ferry was managing director of the Silver King Mine (1905-1919), a member of the Salt Lake City Council, president of the Utah State Senate (1911-1915), and mayor of Salt Lake City (1915-1919). Edward Ferry, Death Certificate, digital copy in the Utah State Archives. Copies of court documents in the possession of authors. We have not been able to determine if any of the money was actually repaid to Rev. Ferry’s estate.
25 Edward P. Ferry chose the name of Marsac to honor a Grand Haven family friend, Sophie de Marsac. See Hal Compton, “Marsac Mystery,” Park Record, May 1-3, 2002.
26 Compton and Hampshire, “Park City,” 322.
27 See Sally Elliott, “Mines, Mills and Moguls,” 8. Unpublished manuscript in possession of the authors.
28 According to “Obligations of Westminster College to Col. Ferry,” The Utah Westminster, 1, no. 2, (January 1908) : 1, the colonel came to Utah, not for financial gain, but to obtain relief from asthma. See also “Park City Items,” Salt Lake Tribune, Feb. 24, 1880; Seibold, Grand Haven: In the Path of Destiny, 40.
29 Seibold, Grand Haven: In the Path of Destiny, 44-49. McPhee, On the Trail of the Leprechaun, 15, 128, 129 further notes that, by 1874, just four years before Col. and Mrs. Ferry arrived in Park City, there was already a store, a blacksmith shop, a saloon, a boarding house, and a meat market. By 1887 the population of Park City had grown to approximately 4,500. For other sources about the history of Park City see: Raye Carleson Price and Harry Harpster, Diggings and Doings in Park City , 2d ed. (Salt Lake City: Bonneville Books and University of Utah Press, 1972), Thompson and Buck, Treasure Mountain Home; David Hampshire, Martha Sonntag Bradley, and Allen D. Roberts, A History of Summit County (Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society and Summit County Commission, 1998). Compton and Hampshire, “Park City,” 318-41.
30 Raye Carleson Price and Harry Harpster, Diggings and Doings in Park City (Salt Lake City: Bonneville Books, University of Utah Press, 1972), [35], not paginated. In spite of the town’s waterworks protection, Park City experienced two major fires: the September 13, 1890, fire nearly destroyed the business section; the June 19, 1898, fire destroyed more than two hundred businesses and homes. No lives were lost in the second fire, but some five hundred people were left homeless, and property loss was estimated at more than one million dollars.
31 Seibold, Grand Haven: In the Path of Destiny, 41. Col. Ferry was listed in the “Financial Red Book of America” as being one of the wealthiest men in Utah. “Wealthy Utahns Are Listed in Book,” Ogden Standard, October 15, 1903.
32 Elliott, “Mines, Mills, and Moguls,” 4.See also Compton and Hampshire, “Park City,” 322. The big strike at the Woodside Mine, which was incorporated in 1889 by Edward P. Ferry, was a bonanza from the start and contributed greatly to increased mining on Park City’s Treasure Hill and he eventually opened the Silver King Mine, which, over time, yielded approximately fifty million dollars for its owners.
33 Hal Compton, “Man Who Built the Mansion,” Park Record, July 17-19, 2002; In 1973, the mansion was moved to Monitor Drive in Park City. Edward Ferry built his mansion at 474 E. South Temple Street in Salt Lake City.
34 “Park City Utah. First Congregational Church.” The Church Review, Historical Ed.,December 29, 1896, 36.
35 “The Homegoing of Mrs. Ferry,” 2.
36 “Park City Utah. First Congregational Church.”
37 “A Tribute from Dr. W. M. Paden,” The Utah Westminster, 4, no. 3 (1917):3; Fred Burton, e-mail message to David Hales, December 9, 2009.
38 Mrs. William M. Ferry, “Our Schools in Utah,” Women’s Synodical Committee of the Board of Home Missions for Michigan, 1883, 1, 11-12. Copy in the possession of the authors. Also Presbyterian Historical Society, RG 105, Box 1, F4. The Rev. Duncan James McMillan (1846-1939) was a prominent Presbyterian minister and missionary who came to Utah in 1875. McMillan played a pivotal role in establishing Presbyterian mission schools and churches in Utah. One of those schools, the Wasatch Academy in Mt. Pleasant, Utah, is still operating today.
39 Mrs. William M. Ferry, “Are Presbyterian Mission Schools Among Mormons Doing Any Good?” Home Mission Monthly, January 1912, 71.
40 “Homegoing of Mrs. Ferry,” 2; Harriett S. Pritchard, The American Harem: Work for the Anti-Polygamy Amendment to the Federal Constitution (New York: Harriett S. Pritchard Committee, 1917), 1, 12.
41 Peggy Pascoe, Relations of Rescue: The Search of Female Moral Authority in the AmericanWest, 1874-1939 (New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), 24.
42 Gustive O. Larson, “An Industrial Home for Polygamous Wives,” Utah Historical Quarterly 38 (Summer 1970): 264. The Industrial Christian Home was located in Salt Lake City on 500 East between 100 South and 200 South. Completed in June 1889, it was a three-story brick and stone building. In addition to an office and service areas, it held forty sleeping rooms which could be increased to fifty if needed. Also, Pascoe states that Newman acquired $660.00 from the Cincinnati-based Women’s Home Missionary Society while Larson quotes $6,500.
43 Pasco, Relations of Rescue, 25.
44 Robert Joseph Dwyer, The Gentile Comes to Utah (Salt Lake City: Western Epics, 1971), 209.
45 Pasco, Relations of Rescue, 26.
46 Ibid.
47 Ibid., 87-90.
48 Larson, “An Industrial Home for Polygamous Wives,” 100.
49 Pascoe, Relations of Rescue, 27.
50 Quoted from Congressional Record, see Larson, “An Industrial Home for Polygamous Wives,” 269.
51 Pascoe, Relations of Rescue, 28.
52 U.S. Congress, House of Representatives , Committee on the Territories, Industrial Christian Home Association of Utah: Communication for the Utah Commissioners Transmitting their Annual Report to Congress, 52 Cong., 2d sess. 1892, Misc. Doc. No. 6.
53 Report of the Utah Commission (Washington, D.C. Government Printing Office, 1893), 4.
54 Dwyer, The Gentile Comes to Utah, 213.
55 Larson, “An Industrial Home for Polygamous Wives,” 272.
56 “Organization Day,” Park Record, February 27, 1920.
57 “The Women’s Athenaeum,” Park Record , February 25, 1899; “Organization Day,” Park Record, February 27, 1920.
58 “Proclamation of the Governor,” Deseret News, September 20, 1882.
59 “A Proclamation: Appointing Delegates to the Deep Water Convention,” Deseret News, August 22, 1888.
60 “Col. W. M. Ferry Rests in Peace,” Salt Lake Tribune, January 3, 1905.
61 Colonel Ferry’s Nomination,” Salt Lake Tribune, October 23, 1886.
62 The Election in Utah,” Salt Lake Tribune, November 13, 1886.
63 Seibold, “Grand Haven: In the Path of Destiny,” 44-49.
64 “Col. W.M. Ferry Rests in Peace.”
65 “Hiles Heads the Ticket, Jurist Nominated by Americans, W. M. Ferry of Summit is Chosen for Governor,” Salt Lake Tribune, October 5, 1904.
66 “Ferry Feels Honored,” Ogden Standard Examiner, October 5, 1904. For additional information concerning Utah’s American Party see Reuben Joseph Snow, “The American Party in Utah: A Study of Political Party Struggles During the Early Years of Statehood” (M.A. thesis, University of Utah, 1964), and Allan Kent Powell, “Elections in the State of Utah,” Utah History Encyclopedia, (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1994), 158.
67 Powell, “Elections in Utah,” 158.
68 Paul Jesse Baird, Presbyterian Pioneers in Utah (Santa Rosa, CA.: The Author, 1996), 4.
69 R. Douglas Brackenridge, Westminster College of Salt Lake City: From Presbyterian Mission School to Independent College (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1998), 44.
70 Ibid, 44-45.
71 Joseph A. Vinatieri, “The Growing Years: Westminster College from Birth to Adolescence” Utah Historical Quarterly 43 (Fall 1975): 347.
72 Brackenridge, Westminster College of Salt Lake City, 112.
73 Vinatieri, “The Growing Years,” 351.
74 Ibid., 352.
75 Ibid., 353.
76 Ibid., 354.
77 Ibid., 355.
78 Brackenridge, Westminster College of Salt Lake City, 112-13, and Josiah McClain, “Early Days of the College,” The Utah Westminster, anniversary ed., October 1922, 13-15.
79 Vinatieri, The Growing Years , 355. A few years before Mary died she and her sister, Kate Ferry Hancock, presented a quit claim deed for the campus land their father had given to the college with certain restrictions. That action transferred the land to the college free from all binding obligation and cleared up for all time any difficulty in the matter of the transfer of the property. “Mrs. M. M. F. Allen,” The UtahWestminster (March 1933), 2.
80 Women’s Board of Westminster College Records, ACC 019, Box 1, Folder 26, Archives, Giovale Library, Westminster College. Enclosed with this document is a more detailed listing of the exact lots which were purchased from each of the above-mentioned individuals. See also Karen Hendry, “Land Tidbits, Possibly Related to Westminster College,” Salt Lake Collegiate Institute on College Hill, 2009, Photocopy in the possession of the authors.
81 Letter from Col. William M. Ferry to “Dear Madame.” No specific name is given but it appears that the individual must be a member of the Westminster College Board of Trustees. Park City, Utah, March 21,1902 (dictated). Women’s Board of Westminster College Records, 1902-1977, ACC 019, Box 2, Folder 26, Archives, Giovale Library, Westminster College.
82 Ibid. The other women he recommended were: Mrs. Charles L. Bailey, Harrisburg, Pa.; Lilian E. Emerson, Titusville, Pa. (cousin to Col. Ferry); Eunice C. Gordan, Ogden; Mrs. T. L. (Elizabeth) B. Hamlin, Washington D.C.; Mary E. James, Brooklyn, New York; Mary F. Keith, Salt Lake City; Miss S. F. Lincoln, New York City; Sara McNiece, Salt Lake City; and Mrs. E. Williamson, Salt Lake City. Later, the Constitution of the Westminster College Woman’s Board stipulated, “The object of this Board shall be to care for the interests of the students of the school; to assist in the maintenance of the buildings for the same; to interest the general public in the College and to cooperate with the President and the Board of Trustees in promoting the welfare of both the student and the institution.” Woman’s Board of Westminster College Records, 1902-1977, ACC 019, Box 1, Folder 6, Archives, Giovale Library, Westminster College.
83 Women’s Board of Westminster College Minutes, 1902-1907, ACC 020, Box 1, Folders 1, 15, 22, Archives, Giovale Library, Westminster College.
84 “The Homegoing of Mrs. Ferry,” 1. Construction on Converse Hall commenced in March 1906. Although initially named for Sheldon Jackson, the college’s name was changed to Westminster College. In 1910, the Salt Lake Collegiate Institute merged with Westminster College.Vinatieri, “The Growing Years,” 358.
85 “Col. W. M. Ferry Rests in Peace,” Salt Lake Tribune, January 3, 1905; Brackenridge, Westminster College of Salt Lake City, 112.
86 “Death of Col. Ferry,” Westminster Herald: Quarterly Bulletin of Westminster College, January 1905, 1. The Hancock Post No. 4 G.A.R., Park City, of which he was a member honored him with a “Resolutions of Respect,” in the Park Record, February 4, 1905. In addition as a token of respect to their departed brother, they draped their charter in mourning for a period of thirty days.
87 “Col. W. M. Ferry Called to His Eternal Home Monday Last,” Park Record, January 7, 1905. This article describes his funeral in Park City in detail. Services in Grand Haven, Michigan. See also Park Record, January 21, 1905, and the Deseret News, January 6, 1905. Some sources maintain that Col. Ferry was totally blind by the time he died. See the Salt Lake Tribune, September 15, 1904; Seibold, Grand Haven: In the Path of Destiny, 40; Snow, “American Party in Utah,” 95. Col. Ferry was awarded a military pension of twelve dollars per month for his service in the Civil War on November 29, 1892, and later petitioned for an increase of one hundred dollars per month, which was denied. On January 14, 1901, his pension was increased to forty dollars per month due to disease of the eyes. “The right eye has been removed and the sight of his left eye amounts to almost total blindness.” Civil War Pension File for Col. William Montague Ferry, Certificate No. 828037. A copy of the complete file is in the possession of the authors.
88 Hal Compton, “Man Who Built the Mansion,” Park Record, July 17-19, 2002. Jeannette sold her Park City mansion to the Silver King Consolidated Mining Company in which Thomas Kearns was a major stockholder. He used the mansion as a summer home and dude ranch. Jeannette’s home in Redlands, California, was built in 1902.
89 Woman’s Board of Westminster College Minutes, 1902-1977, ACC 020, Box 1 Folder 1, 25.
90 “The Homegoing of Mrs. Ferry,” 1. 91 “Remains are Brought Here for Burial,” Grand Haven Tribune, November 12, 1917. 92 “A Tribute From Dr. W. M. Paden,” 3; “The Homegoing of Mrs. Ferry,” 2. 93 Ibid.
