Name Abbie Ferguson Died March 25, 1919 | Education Mount Holyoke College | |
Abbie Park Ferguson (April 4, 1837, Whately, Massachusetts - March 25, 1919) was founder and president of Huguenot College.
She graduated from Mount Holyoke College (then Mount Holyoke Female Seminary) in 1856. She taught in Niles, Michigan until 1858 and later in New Haven, Connecticut from 1867 until 1873.
In 1873 Ferguson and another Mount Holyoke graduate (1862), Anna Bliss, moved to Cape Town, South Africa and established the first women's college in the region, Huguenot College in 1898. Abbie Park Ferguson was president of Huguenot College (which eventually became Huguenot University College) until her retirement in 1910.
She took a leave to return to the United States from 1905 to 1906 during which time she received an M.A. from Mount Holyoke. In 1912, Mount Holyoke honored her with a Doctor of Letters.
She died at Huguenot on March 25, 1919, aged 82.