History

Calvin Fremont Ferguson was born on a farm near Putnam, Connecticut in 1848. His father was Calvin Adams Ferguson, farmer and schoolteacher. His mother was Molly Abigail Ferguson; she died during a miscarriage in her second pregnancy, when Calvin was four years old.

At the age of 16, young Calvin told his father he wanted to enlist in a Connecticut regiment to fight in the American Civil War. The elder Calvin assented, with one condition: Young Calvin would meet his secret clan first.

The two rode to a cedar swamp in southeastern Connecticut. There they met other farmers - who admitted themselves to be the Mashantucket Pequot nation of American Indians, living among the white man in hiding. Young Calvin was a quarter-blooded Pequot! He was formally inducted into the nation that day, and sworn to secrecy. He then went drinking at a bar with his father; the elder Calvin said, it was important to observe the white man's rituals also. There he talked about his own adventures in the War of 1812, and mysteriously said he discovered himself in battle.

Only after that did young Calvin join the Connecticut state forces. He spent the remainder of the Civil War at the siege of Petersburg without seeing battle. He returned to Connecticut, completed his education, got a college degree at Yale, and became a schoolteacher. His father, still vigorous in his old age, went out West.

In April 1898, the Spanish-American war began. Calvin completed the school year, then joined a Connecticut state volunteer regiment. But as in the Civil War, he was too late to see action; the war ended in August. And as Calvin read the news coverage and saw the photos, he realized: His father had put on a mask, joined the Rough Riders, and ridden with Teddy Roosevelt! Calvin realized, that wasn't just vigorous old age. Something was unusual with his father.

As veterans' organizations sprang up for the nation's new foreign wars, Calvin asked around at them. He didn't find his father - but they did forward a letter from him! It had been sent from Labrador, in British North America. In the letter, his father admitted to having beyond-normal vigor and an open-ended lifespan. Calvin might inherit these things also - but he wouldn't find out until he got wounded in battle. But Calvin's father still had something for him: he had left most of his own life savings behind, with instructions for a lawyer to pass them on to his son. Calvin could now retire - and see if he had his own second life coming.

At the age of fifty-five, Calvin looked his age but still had the vigor of a man in his thirties. He began to travel the world. There were small wars around, but Calvin still didn't get to the battles in time. But then came 1914. The same month the Great War started, Calvin joined an American contingent trained by the French Foreign Legion. In May 1915, his regiment got the call to action in the Battle of Artois. They helped take Vimy Ridge in the early assault, but got thrown back by the Germans. Calvin didn't retreat with them.

He woke in the dark, in a pile of bodies. The ghost of his mother was looking down at him. She said, "I guess your father was right about you. Now you have powers like he did."

Calvin tried his powers out. He ran at great speed, jumped over trenches, and returned to the French lines. He jumped in the first friendly trench so quickly, people ran from him in the dark like he was an unexploded artillery shell. This made Calvin realize, he should probably keep his powers secret. So he fashioned a mask.

Throughout the remainder of the World War, Calvin found that no single warrior could really change things. He survived and went home.

In the 1920s, Calvin continued his adventures. He mostly confronted a militant movement of women's suffragettes calling themselves Amazons, led by a woman calling herself Zenobia.

In 1928, a woman came to him and held a baby boy out to him. She said, the infant was his baby by an Amazon. He had to admit, this was possible. So he adopted the child and raised him as Calvin Merle Ferguson. The now-elder Calvin had no trouble finding nannies after 1928, once the Great Depression hit.

In 1942, Calvin left his son behind and went back to war. He fought through North Africa and Italy, doing some good in secret. In Rome he allowed a photographer Louis Moretti to photograph him with his mask on, with a rare color camera.

In 1945 Calvin went home and discovered, his son Calvin Merle had joined the U.S. Army himself, in the "Boy Commando" program! This program had already produced popular heroes S.O.S. and Stonewater Smith. So, seventeen-year-old Calvin was learning Japanese to be ready for an invasion of Japan! The elder Calvin was tired of war by then - and he could not recommend it, especially since he hadn't had The Talk with his son yet. The two had harsh words, and they parted ways.

Only in 1969 did Calvin Fremont Ferguson discover, he had grandsons! Louis Moretti came to him about a series of kidnappings, including Louis's daughter Giulia Anna Moretti and Calvin's grandson Wyatt Patrick Ferguson! Calvin helped Louis invade the Power Patrol headquarters, since the Power Patrol seemed to be involved in the kidnappings. Thereby they confronted S.O.S., Stonewater Smith, and the Powernaut of that era, who had already rescued the captives. Calvin also met his grandson Wyatt, who somehow sensed a relative. Wyatt told him about two other grandchildren, Calvin Luthor and Lauren Katherine.

Calvin Fremont Ferguson respected his son's privacy after that. He went to Labrador, where his own father seemed to have retreated. But he saw no sign of him. Calvin was now the clan elder. He chose to do his unofficial duties in secret, but he learned what he could of his family.

In the 1990s, Calvin's grandson Wyatt started publishing his journals. Calvin thereby found out, his own son had died, risen, and disappeared. He shrugged. Only in 2004 did he intervene for his clan... Wyatt was getting his blood tested by Ellipsis! Calvin successfully assaulted Ellipsis's headquarters in Greenland to disrupt this testing.

In 2006 Calvin finally invited his grandsons to his cabin in Labrador. The younger Calvin did not like being away from the modern world, but Wyatt and Grampa Calvin happily swapped stories for several days.

In 2007, in Goose Bay for a provisioning trip, Calvin got involved in an incident at the "Secret Wings" project.

• He'd gone onto Canadian Forces Base Goose Bay, where he had veterans' shopping privilege at the Base Exchange. While driving back out past one building, his acute hearing noticed a weird tapping even above the engine of his Jeep. It was the Morse code "S.O.S."!
• Calvin tracked the tapping down, to the Luftwaffe-Kanada headquarters. He accosted an entrant who had an entry badge, knocked him out, and got past the door.
• Inside the building, Calvin was able to identify a restricted area. He knocked out the power on the entry floor of the building, then cracked the restricted door.
• Then there was a crash at a front window... Calvin's grandson Wyatt had shown up on his own, and was making his own attempt at the building! Wyatt was being a dumbshit as usual, but his heart was in the right place.
• By then, the facility was breached enough... Prisoners with their feet strapped to rocket glider-wings, started flying out of the restricted area and the front window!
• Calvin knew it was time to leave. He checked on Wyatt before he made his own escape... Wyatt was actually teleporting out somehow, with a prisoner and a companion rescuer! Maybe Wyatt wasn't *that* much of a dumbshit after all.

Grampa Calvin contentedly lived in his cabin until the Global Cooling Crisis of 2011. As Labrador became uninhabitable, he came forth and sought his grandsons in Lafayette, Indiana in 2014. He has made contact with both of them, and it seems likely he will be active in the present day.

Personality

Calvin Fremont Ferguson is outgoing but secretive. He loves to tell stories to comrades by the fireside, but insists those not be written down.

Calvin comes from a family line which is accustomed to leaving its descendants behind. This might explain his indifference toward his own son Calvin. However, despite some philosophical differences with his grandsons Calvin and Wyatt, they get along well.

Powers and Abilities

Calvin Fremont Ferguson inherits powers from a superhuman bloodline going back at least to his father. He has low-level superhuman strength, plus enhanced speed, reflexes, resilience, and senses. He also has decent martial training, plus massive practical experience. He can and has fought the most powerful superhumans in the world to a standstill.

Appearance

Calvin Fremont Ferguson is of medium height, and appears to be about sixty years old. He usually dresses in army surplus clothing.

Publications

• Earliest Appearance: Power Stars 1944 #8
• First Published: "My Family in Comic Books", 1999
• Appearance: Secret Wings, 2007
• Most Recent Publication and Latest Appearance: Superhuman World Annual 2014

Author's Notes

In one of my early "Grampa" stories, I mentioned the Ferguson clan was there at Petersburg in 1864; Wyatt met his Grampa there. One day, I got a sudden urge to note that in a Wiki entry. So I had to write this one. Its main contribution to the SW10 mythos is deep, deep history. Here I get to explain at least...

1. What it was like to be a Connecticut Indian in the 1800s. They actually did have a sentimental (if not sacred) cedar swamp for hiding out. www.pequotmuseum.org
2. How Grampa Ferguson got to be so secretive. It kind of follows from #1, but he has other reasons.
3. How he had met barmaids when he was sixteen years old. This encounter was mentioned in the early Grampa story, so I had to account for it.
4. How far back the Ferguson clan's powers might go. I've pushed them back to at least 1814; that might be where they start, what with a unique mingling of Old World and New World bloodlines.
5. The mysterious story of Wyatt's father, who appears only rarely. There's still more to tell, of course.
6. The ghosts of those who marry the Fergusons. Wyatt's mother has come back for him, so it's only fair Calvin's mother do that also.
7. What Grampa was doing at the Secret Wings Incident. It might be odd for him and Wyatt to just happen to be at Luftwaffe-Kanada headquarters at the same time, but it would be even odder for him to either work with or visit the Luftwaffe.

I decline to mention exactly who else Wyatt might be descended from. That's a Magneto-level heritage debate in my universe, and I decline to resolve it until it fits a story. But great-grandfather Calvin Adams Ferguson is new and unique to this website.

I will say, though... My own family had a fairly long tradition of naming their male babies Calvin. They abandoned this practice in 1928, during the administration of U.S. President Calvin Coolidge. Heh, this in itself says something about the belief systems of my real grandpa and of Calvin Fremont Ferguson. And two generations of my family did sign up for World War 2. As might be expected since Wyatt Ferguson was once "Me in Comic Books", much of this narrative matches my family history. But much does not. For instance, I'm pretty sure my Grampa loved his sons.

On that note... How do I spell "Grampa"? I grew up saying "Grampa" but spelling "Grandpa". The best I can say for my own spelling today is, I've tried to keep it consistent between this entry and the associated story, the 2014 Annual.

(signed) Scott Eiler, 1 September 2015.