Thomas S Ross

ROSS

Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 3/20/2009 at 00:47:57

Thomas S Ross is now living a retired life in Marcy township, but though he is not at present actively engaged in farm work he has been a most progressive and enterprising agriculturist and is the owner of 320 acres of valuable land on Sec 26, where he is still living. He has been a resident of this county since 1871, and is a native of Miami county, Ohio, where his birth occurred July 10, 1838. His father, Samuel Ross, was a native of Pennsylvania, who after arriving at years of maturity married Maria Elliott, also a native of the Keystone state. In 1824, he became a resident of Miami county, Ohio, where he engaged in farming until 1848 when he came to Iowa, being numbered among the early settlers of this state. He took up his abode in Henry county and there he again carried on agricultural pursuits until his death which occurred in 1872. He has long survived his wife who passed away in 1841.
Thomas S Ross was the only member of his family that came to Boone county. He was a little lad of ten years when he became a resident of Iowa and in the schools of this state he largely acquired his education. Under the direction of his father he received practical training in the work of the farm and engaged in agricultural pursuits until after the inauguration of the Civil war, when, his sympathies being with the Union cause, he felt it his duty to protect the government and enlisted on August 13, 1862, as a member of Company B, Twenty-fifth Iowa Infantry under the command of Captain J B Ritner and Colonel George A Stone. He took part in a number of important engagements including the battles of Vicksburg, Chattanooga and those of the Atlanta campaign, after which he proceeded to the sea with Sherman’s victorious army and on through the Carolinas to Washington. He was never injured in any way and after the cessation of hostilities was honorably discharged at Davenport, Iowa June 15, 1865.
Mr Ross then returned to his own home in this state and in 1871 came to Boone county where he has since lived. As the years have passed he has prospered in his undertakings and is today the owner of a very valuable farm of 320 acres in Marcy township. He continued its active cultivation for a number of years but is now living retired and the farm is carried on by his son-in-law.
Mr Ross was united in marriage in Henry county, Iowa to Miss Mary Chalfant, of Iowa, and unto them were born two children: Anna the wife of M W Burrell a farmer living in Peoples township and Belle C the wife of N R Swain who is operating her father’s farm. The mother died March 30, 1888, and since that time Mr Ross has made his home with his daughter and son-in-law. Mrs Swain is a member of the Peoples Baptist church of Peoples township and is a most estimable lady. Mr Ross holds membership with the Grand Army Post of Boone and is a very prominent and well to do citizen who, during the thirty-one yeas of his residence in Boone county has become widely known and gained many friends. He has prospered in his undertakings as the years have passed, his well directed labors bringing to him creditable and gratifying success.

1902 Boone County History Book