Maxville Mondays:  James Ferguson and the Ferguson Thresher Company

            The Ferguson Thresher is perhaps one of the most iconic pieces of late pioneer agricultural machinery. From 1881 to 1954, Ferguson threshers have been all over Canada from Newfoundland to Nunavut. James Ferguson of St. Elmo not only founded the Ferguson Thresher Company but reinvented how threshing machines were designed and built. Ferguson was the son of Donald Ferguson and Margaret Macgregor, who was born on the family’s farm on the Seventh Concession. After his education was finished, he farmed in the summer and operated a threshing mill during the winter. This is what led Ferguson to rethink how an early wood framed threshing machine worked and how it was built. He built his first threshing machine in 1874 while still living on the family’s farm and in 1881 moved to Maxville and set up a shop. In 1884 he submitted his changes to Henry Grist & Company, who then granted him his first patent. In 1910, with the evolution of the steam powered engine, Ferguson received another patent and began building a new variety of threshers. As the popularity of his threshing machine grew, a new factory was built in 1928. Ferguson was joined by his son Donald and died in 1933. Even after his death the technology of threshing machines continued to change; improvements were made, rubber tires were added to newer machines. The transition from wood machines to all steel frames began in 1944 and continued for the next ten years, until the combine became the popular method of harvesting crops and the manufacture of threshers was discontinued. James Ferguson is remembered as being an active member of the community, extremely intelligent and by many accounts a ‘walking encyclopedia’. For the entire town of Maxville, James Ferguson contributed in many different ways but most of all, with the creation of the Ferguson Thresher Company.

Photo Credit of the Canadian Agricultural and Food Museum, Ottawa, Canada. Obtained in 1981, currently in storage.