Robert Ferguson was a man of forceful character whose energy, ability and breadth of vision set him a far above the other pioneers in the area. His was the driving force that shaped the business life of the Restigouche for the first years of the nineteenth century until the time of his death in 1851, at the age of eighty-three. He expanded his brother's business and by 1805 was the leading exporter of fish, shipping 2 000 barrels of salmon annually. In 1810, he bought 1 000 acres of the best of Sam Lee's land, Lee having died a few months before this. Lee's personal estate was not enough to cover his debts at the time of his death and his widow secured permission to sell the land to pay the residue of the debts.

At Old Church Point, Ferguson erected an imposing residence and store combined, which was called Athol House, after his birthplace in Scotland. This was "the first estate permanently established on the Restigouche". It soon became the business center of the Restigouche. Athol House remained a landmark for over eighty years, until destroyed by fire in 1895 or 1896. Soon after the establishment of Athol House, Ferguson began constructing ships to carry his fish to market. For a number of years he found time to sail some of these vessels across to England. During the War of 1812, two ships of his were captured by the Americans, and Ferguson found himself taken prisoner to Salem by an American privateer. On his release, he turned his attention to shipbuilding, cultivating his extensive property, and establishing some of the best fishing stations on the river.(8) He was one of the first businessmen to introduce nets for fishing salmon, replacing the natives and Acadians who had been hired to catch them with spears. As early as the 1820's, he had the vision to press for legislation for control of fishing on the Restigouche. In a letter to the provincial Treasurer in 1829 he pointed out that the salmon fishery was declining, due to the use of spears and to the fishing of both the river and its branches until late in the year. To offset this slump in fishing on the Restigouche, he encouraged many of the fishermen to fish off the coast of Labrador. He financed several of the vessels that did engage in the Labrador fishing. Yet in 1824, G.J. Mountain was able to write after a visit to the Restigouche: "The quality of Salmon in the Restigouche river is prodigious and almost incredible. Mr. Mann showed me a spot where he took 3000 in two nights within a space which he swept by means of six nets sewn together but others have taken a far larger number." Those taken in nets often weighed from 40 to 50 pounds, and were claimed to occasionally run to nearly 60. Ferguson was also the largest landowner of his day on the Restigouche and he gave considerable attention to its maintenance and improvement and to the establishment of farmers on the rich lands in Flatlands.