Major Works
- Memoirs of Catherine Ferguson (1904) may not be published
- Cliquot, A Racing Story of Ideal Beauty (1889)
Biography
Born Catherine Sarah Lee in 1814 in Kentucky, Kate Ferguson was a novelist, playwright, poet, and composer. She was the daughter of poet Eleanor Percy Lee and William Henry Lee, cousin of General Robert E. Lee. Her reputation was that of a notorious Southern belle. She married Confederate General Samuel Wragg Ferguson in 1862. After the war, they lived in Greenville and then Biloxi, Mississippi.
Ferguson’s husband Samuel was appointed treasurer of the Delta Levee Board, but in 1894, he was caught embezzling $59,000 from the Board. He fled the country and ended up in Ecuador. She had two children.
Published in 1888, her novel Cliquot is the story of Neil Emory, who owns a dangerous horse named Cliquot for whom he cannot find a rider because the horse has already killed several previous riders. The papers in the Louisiana State University collection of her letters and works are dated 1814 to 1959 and contain (among other items) some of the following: manuscripts and typescripts of literary works consisting of the Memoirs of Catherine Ferguson (1904); The Old Dancer, a synopsis for a motion picture play; manuscript music and lyrics to Anthem to Louisiana; and manuscript, typescript and newspaper clipping of A Few Words of Jefferson Davis. Other titles included are Birth Mark, a Sensational Drama Founded on Fact, Fledia’s Secret, a Southern Story, Major William Henry Lee, Modern Sorceress (outline for play) Monument to the Confederate Women, My old Black Mammy, Panola, (play) Rosetta, or Waiting for Joel, Sack of Oats, Sarah Dorsey, Beauvoir (description of area around Beauvoir, Miss.) Something About Doll, and Under the Stars. There is also an operetta.
Ferguson discontinued writing after her husband’s disgrace and died poor on May 30, 1928, in Biloxi, Mississippi. She is buried in Beauvoir Cemetery there.
Bibliography
- Kate Lee Ferguson papers in Louisiana State Library Special Collections in PDF file
- Lives of Mississippi Authors, 1817-1967. James B. Lloyd
- The Find a Grave site provides valuable information
- Information about General Sameuel Wragg Ferguson
- Page from The Literary Percys by Bertram Wyatt Brown gives incite into the situation with Ferguson’s husband’s embezzlement.