Nathaniel Ferguson and Amanda Davenport on their honeymoon.
The writing on the back of the card is in ballpoint pen, obviously written many years after the photo was taken. Something not quite right there. Portraits such as this one were not produced in the 1820s. And, since Amanda Davenport wasn't born until 1830, this would have been a stretch. It turns out that the date should be 1856.
Amanda and Nathaniel Ferguson lived in Heidelberg, Pennsylvania. By the time of the 1880 Census they already had seven children. Their household also included her mother, Katherine Adams Davenport, two servants and a governess. Amanda gave birth to ten children and died at the age of 51.
Here's a biographical entry I found for Nathaniel Ferguson in Morton Montgomery's Historical and Biographical Annals, written in 1909.
Nathaniel Ferguson, the youngest son in the
above family, was born in Lancaster county, Pa., Nov. 20, 1817. He
left home when eighteen years of age with fifty cents in his pocket
given him by his mother along with her blessings and well wishes
for success. Having graduated from the Moscow Academy in Lancaster,
where he had shown himself a diligent pupil, in 1839 he became
clerk at the Elizabeth Furnace, in Lancaster county, then owned by
the heirs of James Coleman, one of the proprietors of the Cornwall
mines. Two and a half years later he rose to the management of the
business, and he held that position for seven years. He then
removed to Swatara Furnace, Schuylkill county, and became a member
of the firm of Eckert, Gilbert & Company, of which he was the
active manager. The partnership lasted until 1855 when the company
ceased operations as the use of anthracite coal had superseded
charcoal. In 1857 he removed to Robesonia Furnace and assumed the
management.
In 1860, at the death of Henry P. Robeson, he
purchased an interest and became a partner in the firm of White,
Ferguson & Company. In 1863 the firm became White &
Ferguson, and remained so until 1875, although the interest of Mr.
White, who died in 1868, was continued for the benefit of his
heirs. Mr. Ferguson then purchased the interest of one of the heirs
and the firm became Ferguson, White & Co. ... In 1885 Mr.
Ferguson sold his interests in Robesonia, and, retiring from active
business, removed to Reading, where he passed away in 1891. He was
a prominent man in the city and served as a director of the First
National Bank. As a man of self-reliance, sound education, untiring
energy and great executive ability Mr. Ferguson became a successful
manufacturer and clear-sighted business man with the respect and
regard of all who knew him for his unswerving integrity,
benevolence and liberality toward all. Patriotic and public
spirited, generous and kind, he passed away after a life of great
activity.
Nathaniel Ferguson married in 1856 Miss Amanda
Davenport, daughter of Dr. John Davenport, of Connecticut, and
granddaughter of Judge William Adams, a member of Congress in the
early part of the nineteenth century. They became the parents of
ten children, five of whom still survive: Elizabeth, the wife of
Charles L. Hoff, of Reading; Laura, the wife of Rev. S. H. Larper,
a Presbyterian minister of Media, Pa.; Nathaniel, vice-president of
the First National Bank, of Reading; Wilson; and Grace, wife of O.
S. Doolittle, of New York City.
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