Robert Harry Munro Ferguson
(1867-1922)
Robert Harry Munro Ferguson was born on June 8, 1867 in Raith, Scotland. His father, from an illustrious family, died one year after Robert’s birth. As the third son, Robert had to leave home and find his own way in the world. He made the decision to cross the Atlantic and go to Canada, where he was appointed aide-de-camp to Lord Aberdeen, who was the Governor General. By 1895 he was in New York City, where he worked for Douglas Robinson’s real estate company and was secretary for Colonel John Jacob Astor (1864-1912). Colonel Astor died on the Titanic but his pregnant wife, Madeleine, survived. The Dinsmore collection contains a letter written to Robert with a first hand account of the fateful night the Carpathia returned to the NY port with Titanic survivors. Douglas Robinson was married to Teddy Roosevelt’s sister, Corinne, so Ferguson’s relationship with Theodore helped him financially and, later, socially. Taking a break from his office work, he eagerly joined Roosevelt’s Rough Riders when the Spanish American War (1898-1901) broke out. During his service, he earned the title of lieutenant and gained Teddy Roosevelt’s admiration after being the first man in his regiment to enter the enemy trench at Santiago. Teddy wrote about this to Patty Selmes (Robert’s future mother-in-law) saying, “ I wish you could have seen him, in his gentle, quiet way, going everywhere with me and everywhere I sent him, with literally complete indifference to Spanish bullets.” (1) It was also through the Roosevelts that Robert met his future wife, Isabella Selmes. He was 38 years old when he and the 19-year-old Isabella were married at the home of Frank and Sally Cutcheon in New York. While the newly wed couple was honeymooning in Scotland, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, who were also honeymooning in Europe, joined their friends in Novar, Scotland. Unfortunately, Ferguson was diagnosed with tuberculosis after their two children (Martha Munro and Robert Munro) were born. The family spent time at a sanitarium in the Adirondacks before moving to the mountains of southwest New Mexico where they eventually built a home. Robert’s times of treatments and isolation were broken up with visits from family and friends, like the Roosevelts. Robert succumbed to the disease in 1922. He is buried in the Dinsmore Graveyard.
(1) Miller, K (2015). Isabella Greenway An Enterprising Woman. Tucson: University Of Arizona Press.