Manie Payne Ferguson (1850 – 8 June 1932) was a pioneer leader in the American Holiness Movement, a Christian evangelist and social worker who co-founded the Peniel Mission, and the author of several hymns, most notably "Blessed Quietness".
On 7 June 1883, she married Theodore Pollock Ferguson (January 10, 1853, in Mansfield, Richland County, Ohio – July 12, 1920, in Los Angeles), a former minister in the United Presbyterian Church (Jones, Guide 628; Hunt 285), who had been converted in 1875 in Oberlin, Ohio, through the preaching of evangelist Charles Finney (Clark 1949:79).
(Frankiel in Holland, 22) Ferguson, along with her husband, Theodore, founded the Los Angeles Mission on November 11, 1886.
In 1894, the Fergusons received a significant anonymous financial donation (from former English cricketer George Studd).
They invited former Methodist presiding elder Dr Phineas Bresee to join them in their endeavor, and constructed a 900-seat auditorium and ministry center at 227 South Main Street, Los Angeles.
University of Southern California president Dr. Joseph Pomeroy Widney led the 9:30 am Praise Service, while Bresee preached in the 11:00 am service "from the text, "And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
It is also our work to preach and teach the gospel of full salvation; to show forth the blessed privilege of believers in Jesus Christ, to be made holy and thus perfect in love.
And sectarian feeling was rejected: "Peniel Mission is thoroughly evangelical but entirely undenominational," the Herald declared.
[1] According to Sandra Frankiel, Together with his wife Manie, he offered street-corner meetings in the afternoons and evangelistic services nightly, with a meal afterwards.