FERGUSON, THOMAS JEFFERSON (1877-?). Thomas Jefferson Ferguson, black business executive, was born on January 3, 1877, in Richmond, Texas, the son of Sylvia (Johnson) and Henry Clay Ferguson.^qv He was educated at the Gregory Institute in Houston before moving on to Prairie View College (now Prairie View A&M University). During his studies at Gregory Institute from 1890 to 1893 he served as assistant clerk of the District Court in Richmond, Texas. He also attended Columbia University as well as the University of Chicago. On July 21, 1903, he married Gertrude May Scott. From 1907 to 1920 Ferguson was assistant to the treasurer at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, from 1920 to 1927 the treasurer of Standard Life Insurance, and from 1921 to 1926 the director and vice president of the Citizens Trust Company in Atlanta, Georgia. He was the registrar for the National Negro Business League from 1923 at least through 1932 and served as director of the Atlanta Building and Loan Association beginning in 1925. In 1931 he founded Pioneer Savings Association in Atlanta. Ferguson belonged to a number of civic, business, and fraternal organizations including the NAACP, the YMCA, the Masons, the Elks, and Alpha Phi Alpha. He voted as a Republican and was a Methodist.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Who's Who in Colored America, 1930-32.

Kharen Monsho