Ross, Rev. Davidson W.
Date 2010/6/9 11:37:01 | Topic: Family Histories
| ROSS:
Rev. Davidson W. Ross is the first of this family name in Geary District. So far as we find he came alone, a young man scarcely twenty-one years of age, and at once purchased a large tract of land, about or above "Three Forks of Sandy." He says in his dictated biography in Hardesty’s History, that he “was born in Pike County, Kentucky, January 6, 1831, son of Rease A. and his wife, Isabelle (Anderson) Ross," both these of Colonial families of old Virginia. Here, near "Three Forks of Sandy," Davidson W. Ross, on July 14, 1850, married Nancy Drake, born in Pike County, Kentucky, June 8, 1833, daughter of Isaac and Margaret "Peggy" (Bishop) Drake, of Virginian Colonial families, who settled here on Sandy about the year 1844. It is regrettable that Davidson W. Ross did not leave more information of the family he left behind when he came here, so young, yet so well provided with money, and a better education than any other of the settlers at that date. A lone young man determined to found a home and family in the depths of an immense forest. He soon became a leader; added a mercantile business to his other many
pursuits. Promoted getting the first United States postoffice established at Newton, 1857, the name of which he bestowed, in compliment to his baby son, Isaac Newton. He became a regular preacher of the Baptist faith, which he followed for fifteen years, becoming generally spoken of as the "Reverend Davidson Ross"; was seven years postmaster, six years the Justice of the Peace. A useful man.
Of the marriage of Rev. D. W. and Nancy (Drake) Ross, we can here name the following children: George W., born 1851; William E., died in ifancy; Isaac Newton, February 9, 1855; Lewis Phillip, June 27, 1857; Millard F., June 11, 1859; Rease H., January 12, 1862, died infant; Margaret I., December 25, 1865; Ulysses S., February 27, 1867; Spurgeon C., January 24, 1872; Talitha, died in infancy, and Forest R., was born April 26, 1878.
Of this Ross family we note further: That Isaac Newton Ross married Elizabeth Tawney, daughter of the pioneer family of Tawney’s of Upper Sandy, and made a good farm and raised a family of children on it. His first public service was that of school teacher, which he followed the first years of his young manhood; was a member of the county board of teachers’ examiners several times, about the years 1881-82-83; was elected and served one term, four years, as Commissioner of the County Court, its president for the year 1907 or 1908, during which time the court began the erection of iron bridges and a general improvement of the county roads. And further:
The son, Louis Phillip Ross, also began as a public school teacher, young, and when lacking just one month of twenty-one years of age, May 18, 1878, says the marriage record, united in marriage with Clara Wolfe, one of the first of the female teachers of the county, and the daughter of Joseph B. and Elizabeth (Alkire) Wolfe, of near Spencer. Some time shortly after marriage L. Phillip took a medical course at one of the Ohio Valley medical colleges, and went West, about 1898, his wife and daughter, Willa, soon following, and established himself in practice of his profession in Oklahoma, and has ever since resided there and been spoken of as Dr. Ross.
Source: History of Roane County, West Virginia, 1774-1927, William H. Bishop, Esq., pp 647-648
|
|