Ben Ferguson

In keeping with Ben's wishes, private services for Ben Ferguson will be held at the home place at a later date with Pastor Marsha Stauss officiating. Ben was born July 10, 1936 in Crawford, Nebraska and lost his bout with cancer on September 7, 2014. He passed away quietly at home in the loving care of his family and the wonderful hospice nurses. (Also the old cat, Louise, who would not leave his side.) Ben grew up on the family ranch near Whitney, Nebraska where he attended District T through grade school and graduated from Crawford High. After graduation he enlisted in the Army, being stationed in La Rochell, France. After the service he went into partnership with his father, Charls, on the ranch, raising Hereford cattle and alfalfa. Ben attended Chadron State for a year and an Ag school at Fort Robinson. In 1961, he went to work for the soil conservation service. While surveying Big Cottonwood Dam, he and George McMillan discovered the Woolley mammoths, now on display at the Trailside Museum at the Fort. In 1964, he married Barbie Cooley at Hot Springs, South Dakota, and this past June they celebrated fifty years of marriage. Ben and Barbie had a son, Charlie, and a daughter, Michele. Ben was an avid shooter, belonging to several leagues and a proud life member of the NRA. He was also a member of the Northwest Nebraska Shooters Club, and hosted several pistol shoots and the White River Trap at the place on White River. He served on the Whitney Village Board as secretary and justice of the peace. He also serviced on the rural fire board of Crawford. In the early sixties, he went to work for Ed Ehrheart putting in the water pipelines to the ranches north of Crawford. At one point in time, Ben figured he had glued more joints of PVC pipes than anyone in the world. In the early seventies, he bought a backhoe and did most of the repair work on the pipelines that he helped install. Around, 1980 he started a 32 year career with Wyoming Fuel exploring for uranium and later for the Crow Butte Mine. Ben's hobbies included shooting and reloading, making jewelry for "his girls", and exploring civil war battlefields. He is survived by his wife Barbie, Daughter and Son-in-Law Michele and Bill Homrighausen of the Whitney Ranch; granddaughters Maggie and Husband Brandon Prelle of Chadron, Rachel Homrighausen and special friend, Stephen McGannon of Whitney, and half-brother Gerald and wife Alice Lux of rural Crawford; many nieces and nephews, and many friends. Preceding him in death are his son, Charlie, parents Charls and Nona Ferguson and half-sister, Karlene Thornton. Ben truly was one of a kind, cracking one-liners to the very end. He really did things his own way. Memorials have been set up for the Crawford Fire and Rescue Department or the Chadron Hospice. Donations may be sent to Chamberlain Chapel, PO Box 970, Chadron, NE 69337.