Richardson co, NE: ALEXANDER M. FERGUS, contractor and builder, Humboldt, is a native of Ohio, and was born and raised in Miami County. He was, in his youth, engaged in the tanner and currier business with his father, who was prominently identified with that industry then. While engaged in that business he married Hannah Putterbaugh, by whom he had two children--a daughter and a son. She died, and he afterward married Joanna T. Penny, by whom he has seven children--five sons and two daughters. In 1856 he came to Nebraska and located land in Nemaha County, getting Certificate No. 14, entered at Omaha, and was engaged in farming until the breaking out of the war. He then returned to Indiana, and enlisted in Company F, One Hundred and Fifty-first Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and was transferred to the Department of the Cumberland, Fourth Army Corps, Second Brigade, First Division, and was mustered out in Nashville, Tenn, with an honorable discharge. After this he returned to Indiana, and was principally identified there with his present industry until 1881, when he came here and has been prominently connected with his present business since. Francis Fergus, the ancestor of the present family of Ferguses, came from Ireland, and came to America before the Revolutionary war and served in the Continental Army. First settled in Cumberland County, Penn., and married, after which he immigrated to Rockbridge County, Va. Hisson, James Fergus, the father of the subject of this sketch, settled in Miami County, Ohio, in 1808.