Faith FERGUSON ( - )
1 Faith FERGUSON1,2 ( - ) [11507].
2 Alan Douglas FERGUSON1,3,4 (1914-1989) [11504]. Born 25 Oct 1914, Boston, MA.3,4 Marr Vera Mildred MASIUS 18 Dec 1948, Worcester, MA.4 Died 26 Apr 1989, Burlington, MA.4
4 Allen Walter FERGUSON4 ( - ) [11508]. Born Putnam, CT.4
5 Hazel Isabel TITUS4 ( - ) [11509]. Born St. John, NB, Canada.4
3 Vera Mildred MASIUS1,5 (1919-2006) [11503]. Born 29 Jan 1919, Worcester, MA.1,5 Died 9 Jul 2006, Lexington, MA.2
From the Boston Globe.
July 16, 2008 - "Deceased Name: FERGUSON, Vera (Masius) of Lexington, July 9, 2006. Wife of the late Al;an D. Ferguson. Mother of Letitia Ferguson and he husband David Cundy of Madison, CT, James and his wife Karen of Tiburon, CA, and Faith Ferguson and her husband Denis Haskin of Lexington. Sister of Marguerite Hammond of Paris, France. Grandmother of Micholas and Caroline Ferguson Cundy and Lucia, Bailey, and Spencer Ferguson. A memorial Service will be planned for the Fall at First Parish Church, Lexington. Donations in Vera's memory may be made to First Parish Unitarian Church, c/o Lend-a-Hand Society, 7 Harrington Rd., Lexington, MA 02420. Douglass Funeral Home, Lexington 781 862 1800, www.douglassfh.com."
July 18, 2006. "Vera Mildred (Masius) Ferguson, a physical anthropologist, died on July 9 at Brookhaven in Lexington, a retirement community. She was 87.
Born and raised in Worcester, Mrs. Ferguson lived in Lexington for more than 35 years. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1940, and earned her master's in archeology from Yale University, where she assisted in field studies of Native American sites. After raising her three children, Mrs. Ferguson worked in the physical anthropology department at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. She ultimately moved to Lexington, where she edited and published several medical and specialty journals. She spoke five languages fluently, and was a member of the Lend a Hand Society.
She leaves two daughters, Letitia of Madison, Conn., and Faith Haskin of Lexington; a son, James, of Tiburon, Calif., and sister, Marguerite Hammond of Pais. S memorial service is planned for the fall at the First Parish Church, Unitarian Universalist, in Lexington.".
6 Morton Lee MASIUS1,5,6,7,8 (1883-1979) [11496]. Born 6 Oct 1883, NY.1,6,8 Marr Paula Marie WAGNER 1910, Germany.1 Died Nov 1979.8
Information from a posting by Faith Ferguson, a granddaughter of Morton Masius
"Morton stayed in Germany, married a German woman, Paula Marie Wagner (my grandmother), from a wealthy family in Leipzig-Gohlis. He studied chemistry at the University of Leipzig, earning his Ph.D. in Chemistry in @1907. Paula also was a Ph.D. student in Chemistry, the first woman in that department at the university. After a two year Fellowship in the U.S. at Harvard, Morton went back to Germany. He and Paula married in 1910, and came to the U.S. where Morton took a position as Professor of Physics at Worcester Polytechnic in Worcester MA. My mother Vera Mildred Masius was born in Worcester in 1919; her older sister Marguerite was born in Worcester in 1917. They are both alive, Marguerite lives in Paris with her husband Robert Hammond and my dad, Alan D. Ferguson, died a number of years ago. My mother lives nearby here in Lexington, MA. There is a slew of kids and grandkids. My grandparents never went back to Germany to live, since WWI broke out soon after and it became impossible. My mother believes that she has Liebisch cousins in Germany, but because Leipzig was in East Germany, and due to the chaos of WWII, she has never been able to find out.."
A portion of Two Towers; The Story of Worcester Tech 1865-1965 which concern Morton Masius.
" According to Professor Wilbur or his associate, Bernard Hildebrand, the reactor was not complex or dangerous. Nevertheless there were safety precautions. Doors were securely locked; permission was required for admittance, and the reactor, monitored twenty-four hours a day, was connected by telephone to police headquarters via the American District Telegraph Company. Only twice did the squawking sound of the alarm rasp its way across campus - once when the professor forgot to shut off the automatic alarm when he entered the room on a Saturday morning, again when a change in voltage tripped the alarm, A.D.T. guards, police, and reporters so soon swarmed around the old Washburn building that no one again doubted the efficacy of the reactor's safety provisions. "But sooner or later" predicted Wilbur, "some student is going to smuggle a gold fish into the pool."
The reactor was soon used by all departments of the school to teach the handling of radioactive materials and to illustrate the fundamentals of reactor operations. Its most important function from a community point of view, however was the advantageous proximity of radioactive isotope production, which was made available free of charge by both the reactor and the accelerator to non profit organizations such as schools and hospitals for research in activation analysis.
Possible applications of atomic research appeared to be endless, and the world held its breath to see how rationally this devastating and wondrous power would be used - in medicine, agriculture, construction and industry or in human annihilation. At any rate, Tech's facilities were now exceptional for the study of molecules and atoms, thanks to the reactor and to the accelerator in Olin Hall.
Many dignitaries and guests attended the dedication ceremonies of Olin Hall. During the procession a comparatively new professor, Benjaman A. Wooten, stood on the sidelines busily snapping pictures. Everyone was seated, the program about to begin, when Professor Wooten saw a lone figure trudging up the West Street walk from Salisbury. The man wore a white suit, a Panama hat, white buckskin shoes, striped shirt, bright tie, and a jaunty air which unmistakably belonged to Morton Masius.
Hurriedly, Professor Wooten volunteered to find a place for the elderly visitor. "There'll be a place for me, " said Dr. Masius with confident dignity.
And indeed there was a place for this emeritus professor who had come back to share the pleasure of this great day, a day which he had helped make possible by his own scholarly achievements. ".
12 Edmund A. MASIUS9,10,11 (1855-1915) [11494]. Born Mar 1855, France.10 Marr Edith A. BAILEY 28 Apr 1880, Stony Fork, PA.9 Div. Died Nov 1915.12 Cause: Tuberculosis.
Masius was probably Alfred G., but is a very mysterious figure. The following is from Tioga County Alien Records:
"MASIUS, ALFRED G.; age 24; born in France; arrived at Baltimore in July 1872; settled in Wellsboro; renounced the Republic of France; declaration made 27 August 1879.".
13 Edith A. BAILEY9,13,14,15 (c. 1860-1892) [11449]. Born c. 1860, PA.13,14 Marr Bernard LIEBISCH 8 Apr 1889, Leipsic, Germany.15 Died 29 Apr 1892, Leipsic, Germany.16 Cause: Consumption.
A great-granddaughter of Edith's, Faith Ferguson states the following in part of a posting in 2004:
"She [Edith] was married to Alfred (or Albert, or Edmund, unclear!) Masius near Wellsboro some time @ 1880, against the wishes of her family. They had two sons, Roderick and Morton, both born in Egg Harbor City, N.J. When the boys were young, Edith and Alfred (?) divorced (shocking for the time) and Edith moved to Leipzig Germany to study the new field of experimental psychology with Willem Wundt (at the time she was his only American woman student.) The boys went to the school attached the famous church where J. S. Bach was organist and choir director. Edith remarried, to Bernard Liebisch, who was a widower. They had a daughter Mildred. Edith never returned to the U.S. Edith became ill and on her deathbed extracted a promise from her younger sister Mildred to care for her boys. Mildred Bailey gave up her own engagement (to a man in the Wellsboro area) to remain in Germany caring for the boys. She married her sister's husband Bernard Liebisch. They had a son, Arnold Llewellyn."
From the Wellsboro Agitator.
April 30, 1889 - "Mrs. Edith Bailey Masius, who is well known in this borough, was married on the 8th instant to Mr. Bernard Liebisch, at Leipsic, Germany."
January 6, 1892 - "We learn that Miss Mildred Bailey, who went to Germany last year to are for invalid sister, is in very poor health indeed, her lungs being affected. Her sister Edith is reported to in in a very critical condition, and her physician has no hopes of her recovery, her disease being consumption."
May 4, 1892 - "Last Friday a dispatch was received here announcing the death of Mrs. Edith Hailey Liebisch at Leipsic, Germany that morning. She died of consumption with which disease she had been suffering for months. Mrs Liebisch was the daughter if John W. Bailey. She went to Leipsic about five years ago to study in the university intending to fit herself for a teacher. Soon after she met Prof. Bernard Liebisch, a dealer in rare books and they were afterward married. When her health began to fail her sister Miss Mildred Bailey went to her and has ministered to her during her sickness. Mrs. Liebisch was nearly thirty three years of age. She leaves three children two of the by a former marriage with Mr. Masius.".
7 Paula Marie WAGNER1,5,6 (1885- ) [11502]. Born 26 Apr 1885, Leipzig, Germany.1,5,6
Sources
| 1 | "Information from a posting by Faith Ferguson, a great-granddaughter of Edith Bailey". |
| 2 | "Obituary's of Vera Mildred (Masius) Ferguson in the Boston Globe, July 16 & 18, 2006". |
| 3 | "1930 NJ, Essex, Montclair census". |
| 4 | "Information provided by Faith Ferguson". |
| 5 | "Passport of Morton Masius". |
| 6 | "1930 MA, Worchester, Worchester census". |
| 7 | "Boston, MA, 1913 Harvard University Alumni Directory". |
| 8 | "Social Security Death Index". |
| 9 | "Marriage announcement of Edith A. Bailey and Edmund A. Masius in the Wellsboro Agitator, August 24, 1880". |
| 10 | "1900 Washington, DC census". |
| 11 | "From an article in the Baltimore Sun, March 25, 1909". |
| 12 | "Death notice of Alfred G. Masius in the Washington Post, November 30, 1915". |
| 13 | "1870 PA, Tioga, Wellsboro census". |
| 14 | "1880 PA, Tioga, Wellsboro census". |
| 15 | "Marriage announcement of Edith Bailey Masius and Bernard Liebisch in the Wellsboro Agitator, April 30, 1889". |
| 16 | "Death notice of Edith Bailey Liebisch in the Wellsboro Agitator, May 4, 1892". |
