By Dr. Curtis Varnell
The Ouachita Mountains has produced its share of distinctive and eccentric individuals, but none more unique than Chalmers Ferguson, the hermit poet of Magazine. With a story much like The Scarlet Letter, Chalmers and his sister were born out of wedlock and suffered the pangs of growing up in a puritanical community. Scorned and ignored by the local population, his mother decided to end the life of both she and the children. Taking the two under her arms, she waded into a swift flowing stream attempting suicide by drowning. A rider rode up as the current carried the three into deep water and was able to rescue Chalmers but his mother and sister perished. The event was to have traumatic and life-long effects on the young man.
Raised to young adulthood, he joined Teddy Roosevelt and the rough-riders and was eventually shipped to Cuba and was said to have been present at San Juan hill. One of the first battles to employ modern weaponry such as the machine gun, the carnage and bloodshed during the battles further alienated young Chalmers who was serving as a band member and medic.
Seeking escape from a society he rejected, the arrived at the Blue Mountain train station. Dressed with his always present bandana around his neck, decked out in a green vest, and with a gold-braided bandsman hat tilted on his head, he looked more a product of the 60’s hippie generation than a turn-of-the century farmer.
Seeking solitude, Ferguson settled in a small cover under the rim of the western cliffs of Magazine mountain. Building a small three room house, he settled into the life of a hermit. He made friends of many varieties of wildlife found on the mountain, the most unusual being his friendship with snakes. Kept in his house, he described how he handled the serpents, “In making friends with snakes, I pick it up with a stick. I never touch it unless looking it in the eye.” Snakes strike at man only when they fear him. Its fear of each other that makes us enemies.” Fearing he would roll over on his snake friends at night and provoke attack, Chalmers built a coffin-like container in which he slept at night.
Left alone in the solitude, he would compose long poems, often about the beauty and solitude of the place he called home. Haunting and beautiful, the poems often mentioned thoughts of his mother and evoke feelings akin to reading the poetry of Edger Allen Poe.
The poem, To My Mother, begins: “Betrayed and outcast and forsaken, You were laid in an untimely grave. No eye nor no voice to take pity, No arm stretched to succor or save. But you rose in your chrysalis beauty, Bejeweled as heaven’s own bride; And I welcome the whispering message, That will summon my soul to your side.”
Hearing of his poems, John P. Cravens of the Arkansas Democrat traveled by train to Blue Mountain, hiked four miles up the mountain, and visited with Ferguson. He described Chalmers as a man of great intellect- one who spoke at least three languages, wrote poetry, created professional artistic work, and could discuss history and politics in detail. The man could play several instruments, wan an expert on dynamite, land surveying, carpentry, and photography.
During subsequent years, Cravens and the Arkansas Democrat published many of Chalmers poems. Often these were picked up by other news sources and Chalmers became widely known as the Hermit Poet of Magazine Mountain.
As the years went by, Ferguson gradually turned to human companionship. Building a small home in Blue Mountain, he started staying in town for longer and longer periods of time. Many of his poems speak of his primary love; birds, flowers, and most of all little children. Eventually, this intellectual, talented man began assisting and teaching in the local schools.
Ferguson died in 1934 and is buried in Danville, Illinois. His true legacy was and remains his years served as the hermit poet of Magazine Mountain.
