ROSS, Lewis E., b 1856; 1905 Bio, Delta County, Colorado http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/montrose/bios/rossle.txt --------------------------------------- Donated September 3, 2001 Transcribed by Judy Crook from the book: Progressive Men of Western Colorado Published 1905, A.W. Bowen & Co., Chicago, Ill. --------------------------------------- Lewis E. Ross From his boyhood Lewis E. Ross, a prominent and progressive stock man and farmer of Montrose county, living eight miles northwest of the county seat, has dwelt on the western frontier and been familiar with its various phases of life, its trials and toils, its difficulties and privations, its wild freedom and wealth of opportunity. He was born in 1856 at Cedar Springs, Michigan, and is the son of Moses and Eleanor (Watkins) Ross. The father was a native of New York and in his young manhood settled in Ionia county, Michigan, where he worked at his trade as a shingle weaver until 1864, then moved his family to California by the Atlantic and the isthmus route, and in that state was successfully engaged in farming in Humboldt and Solano counties until his death in 1875, at the age of forty-six. He was a son of Joshua and Hannah (Rounds) Ross, the former a native of Vermont who settled in New York and there married, then moved to Ionia county, Michigan, in the early days of its history. The mother of Lewis E. Ross was a native of England who came to the United States with her parents when she was three years old. She died on January 14, 1905, at her son's residence. She was the mother of nine children, Lewis being the second. When he was eight years old he removed from his native state to California with the rest of the family, and there grew to manhood. When his father died he was nineteen years old and at once took charge of the farm and aided his mother to rear the younger children. About the age of twenty-five he left California and came to Colorado, and at Silverton followed mining four months. He then settled in the Uncompahgre valley, then a part of Gunnison county, Montrose not having been thought of as yet. He took up one hundred and sixty acres of land by pre-emption and has since purchased one hundred and twenty acres additional, and has improved the place with care and labor, bringing it from savage wildness to its present highly fertile condition and furnished with commodious and comfortable buildings of every kind needed for the proper management of the extensive farming and stock business he conducts there. In due time after his location in this region Mr. Ross saw the need of a new county organization and began the agitation that ended in the formation of Montrose county, circulating among the people a petition praying the legislature to authorize the division. Since then he has been an active worker for the interests of the county, and as he is a firm believer in the principles of the Democratic party his public acts have been mostly in the support of its candidates and an active participation in its primary elections and conventions, at which he is a familiar figure and an earnest worker. Until seven years ago he was in partnership with his brother J.J. Ross in farming and the stock business, but since then he has been alone. He has as a feature of interest on his farm fine colonies of bees and produces quantities of the most delicious honey. In 1892 Mr. Ross was married to Miss May Dohl, a native of Norway, the daughter of Lewis Dohl, an esteemed citizen of Montrose where he settled in 1886. Three children have blessed the Ross household, Leila, Myrtle and Wilna. Mr. Ross takes an active and serviceable part in all works of improvement in his neighborhood, and his counsel and assistance is much sought and highly valued. He is now a member of the board which has in charge the Gunnison water project. =================================================== Contributed for use by the USGenWeb Archive Project (http://www.usgenweb.org) and by the COGenWeb Archive Project USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access.