Thomas Stuart Ferguson

Thomas Stuart Ferguson (May 21, 1915 – March 16, 1983) was an American lawyer, a Mormon and an amateur archaeologist who dedicated his life to finding archeological evidence of the Book of Mormon in Mesoamerica. He was instrumental in the foundation of the New World Archaeological Foundation. He initially believed that the history of Mesoamerican cultures provided support to the historicity of the Book of Mormon, but towards the end of his life came to the conclusion that the Book of Mormon was a work of fiction rather than a historical book.

Early life Ferguson was born in Pocatello, Idaho, and attended the University of California, Berkeley. He studied under M. Wells Jakeman and became interested in Mesoamerican history as it was believed at the time that it would prove the historicity of the Book of Mormon. However, he did not continue studies in history but obtained a political science degree in 1937 followed by a LL.B. in 1942.

Ferguson began to work on the idea that the Book of Mormon could be examined for evidence. The dominant theory within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) at the time was that the Book of Mormon took place over the entire Western Hemisphere. Ferguson became convinced that the geography was limited to Central America. Ferguson, along with master's student John L. Sorenson, spent the next several years traveling throughout Mesoamerica documenting a large number of artifacts and formative period sites.

In April 1953 Ferguson met with the First Presidency and other leaders of the LDS Church to ask for $15,000 for the current year and $120,000 for the next for years funding NWAF. Church president David O. McKay replied, "Brother Ferguson, you are a hard man to stop." A week later the LDS Church agreed to donate $15,000 on the condition that no publicity be attached to the donation in any way or any time.

In June 1960 apostles Mark E. Peterson and Marion G. Romney, along with BYU officials Ernest L. Wilkinson and Joseph T. Bentley, visited NWAF operations in Mexico to determine if the LDS Church should continue to fund operations, and came away impressed. In January 1961 the LDS Church decided not only to continue funding, but to absorb NWAF. Apostle Howard W. Hunter became the chairman, and Ferguson's role was changed from president to secretary. Regarding his significantly reduced role in the organization, Ferguson told Hunter that he was "content to eat whatever piece of pie is thrown my way, however small or humble."

LDS Church critic Wesley P. Walters described Ferguson as a "closet doubter." Ferguson privately suggested that Joseph Smith had no ability whatsoever to translate Egyptian hieroglyphs. In December 1970 he visited Jerald and Sandra Tanner and they developed a friendship with him, and declared that he had spent 25 years trying to prove Mormonism in vain.

Ferguson was private about his views, sharing them with close associates. Howard W. Hunter was aware of Ferguson's beliefs, but still chose to maintain him as secretary of NWAF. Ferguson chose to remain a member of the LDS Church, believing it to be a good organization even if it wasn't true. He privately expressed in a letter:

Belonging with my eyes wide open, is actually fun, less expensive than formerly, and no strain at all. I am now very selective in the meetings I attend, the functions I attend, the amounts I contribute, etc. etc., and I have a perfectly happy time. I never get up and bear testimony—but I don't mind listening to others who do. I am much more tolerant of other religions and other thinking and feel fine about things in general. You might give my suggestions a trial run—and if you find you have to burn all the bridges between yourselves and the Church, then go ahead and ask for excommunication. The day will probably come—but it is far off—when the leadership of the Church will change the excommunication rules and delete as grounds non-belief in the two books mentioned [the Book of Abraham and the Book of Mormon] and in Joseph Smith as a prophet, etc.—but if you wait for that day, you probably will have died. It is a long way off—tithing would drop too much for one thing.

Later in 1976, fifteen years removed from any archaeological involvement with the NWAF, referring to his own paper, Ferguson wrote a letter in which he stated:"The real implication of the paper is that you can't set the Book-of-Mormon geography down anywhere—because it is fictional and will never meet the requirements of the dirt-archeology. I should say—what is in the ground will never conform to what is in the book." In 1983, a couple months before his death, Ferguson went with Howard W. Hunter on his final trip to Mexico for NWAF. He died unexpectedly from a heart attack while playing tennis at the age of 67.

Ferguson had purportedly been working on a book-length manuscript that would "expose Joseph Smith as a fraud"; however, this final manuscript has never surfaced.

Personal life Ferguson married Ester Israelson in 1940 and they had five children. Both were active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and he enjoyed the company of other members after he had lost faith in Joseph Smith.