FERGUSON, SAMUEL DAVID: Protestant Episcopal missionary bishop of Cape Palmas and parts adjacent; b., of African descent, at Charlestown, S. C., Jan. 1, 1842. At the age of six he was taken by his parents to Liberia, where he was educated in the church mission schools and received his theological training from the mission clergy. He was ordered deacon in 1865 and priested two years later, after which he was rector of St. Mark's, Harper, Liberia, until 1885, being also a teacher in the boys' boarding-school at Cavalla 1862-63 and master of Mount Vaughan high school 1863-73. In 1885 he was consecrated missionary bishop of Cape Palmas and parts adjacent, and was the first negro to be elevated to the Protestant Episcopal episcopate.