Named in honor of James Ferguson (1797–1867), a civil engineer, member of the Northwest Boundary Survey, assistant in the U.S. Coast Survey, and from 1848–1867 an astronomer at the U.S. Naval Observatory on the 9.6 inch refractor. He made the first discovery of a minor planet in America in Sept. 1854, namely (31) Euphrosyne, and later discovered (50) Virginia and (60) Echo. He was a skilled computer, widely read, and an admirable conversationalist. (M 4155) _ _.