History of Lee County, Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

218 HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY
Charles and Emily (Plautz) Trainor, the former a native of
Canada and the latter of Lee county. Both have passed away. To
their union were born five children, of whom four are yet li\iiig.
Mr. and Mrs. Drummond have two children : Helen A. and Verl
Otto. The parents are members of the Methodist Episcopal church
and Mr. Drummond gives his political allegiance to the democratic
party. He holds the office of school director and he is at all times
progressive and public-spirited in matters of citizenship, taking
an active interest in community affairs. He is accounted one of
the extensive landowners and progressive farmers of Ashton
township and has the unqualified confidence and esteem of the entire
community.
E. J. FERGUSON.
Prominent among the energetic, farsighted and capable busiiess
men of Dixon is E. J. Ferguson, a hardware merchant, whose
enterprise and laudable ambition have constituted the foundation
upon which he has built his success. He was born in Peoria
county, Illinois, in 1875 and after acquiring a public-school edu-
cation devoted his time and attention to general agricultural pur-
suits. He carried on farming near Pontiae, Illinois, imtil nearly
twenty-five years of age and then removed to Greene county, Iowa,
where he spent about five years in general farming. On the expiration
of that period he returned to Pontiae, where lie became
connected with commercial interests, spending one year as clerk
in a hardware store. He then embarked in the hardware business
on his own account at Marseilles, Illinois, where he remained
for three years, and in 1909 he came to Dixon, seeking here a
broader field of labor. Here he soon placed on sale a large stock
of hardware and the success of the enterprise is indicated in the
fact that he found it necessary to secure larger quarters and did
so by purchasing the business of The Gunn Company in 1911. He
now canies a full and well selected line of shelf and heaw hardware
and his trade is extensive and gratifying. His business
methods are such as will boar the closest investigation and
scrutiny and his even-paced energy has carried him into important
relations with the commercial interests of Dixon.
In 1S97 Mr. Ferguson was united in marriage to Miss Fannie
Wassom, a native of Pontiae. Illinois, and unto them have been