Ross, William Ray, St. Landry Parish, then Sabine Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller

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William Ray Ross for over thirty years has been a practical man of business and 
affairs in Sabine Parish in the Pleasant Hill community.  He has been a farmer, 
a cotton ginner and twenty-one years of consecutive service as a member of the 
police jury make him the oldest member of that body.  For several years he was 
president of the jury.

Mr. Ross was born in Vermilionville, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, March 29, 
1862, son of William Jackson and Sarah Jane (Harvey) Ross.  His parents were 
natives of Mississippi.  His mother, a daughter of Michael Harvey, accompanied 
when a young woman, her parents on their removal to Texas.  William Jackson Ross 
soon followed and they were married in Texas.  The Ross and Harvey families are 
of Scotch Irish ancestry.  After their marriage, William J. Ross and wife 
started to return to Mississippi.  While stopping in St. Landry Parish, their
 son, William Ray, was born.  They then moved on hack to Meridian, Mississippi.  
W. J. Ross was a gunsmith, machinist and blacksmith, and during the war between 
the states made guns for the Con federate soldiers.  After the war he settled at 
Brandon, Mississippi, and later at Star, Mississippi, and died in 1878 at the 
age of forty-eight.  He was a member of the Masonic fraternity and the Baptist 
Church.  After his death his widow and the younger members of his family in 
1893, came to Louisiana, following the settlement of William Ray Ross here.  
Mrs. Ross bought a small farm, and her son cultivated it.  She lived there until 
her death in 1914 at the age of seventy-two.  All her children, five sons and 
two daughters, are living:  William Ray Ross;  Ellis J., a machinist at Many, 
Louisiana;  J. N., a machinist at Baton Rouge;  R: L., a machinist at 
McKeesville; and  Rev. W. J., a Baptist minister at Hornbeck, Louisiana, this 
being the only son who has not followed some mechanical occupation.  The two 
daughters are  Ella V., wife of John Clark, of Star, Mississippi, and  Emma, 
wife of Tim Bostick.

William Ray Ross acquired his education in schools at Star, Harrisville and 
Briar Creek, Mississippi, and taught two schools; one for a four months' term 
and the other for a two months' term.  He did mechanical work and farming in 
Mississippi and in 1888 married in that state.  For a time he lived on rented 
land in Rankin County, Mississippi, and for one year farmed in Hunt County, 
Texas.  He then returned to his mother's old place in Mississippi, and in 1892 
on coming to Louisiana settled in Sabine Parish where he has engaged in 
farming.  He also was employed at various times in stores for Dr. H. L. Davis, 
H. H. Kennedy, J. M. Bridges, Hardy & Gaddis.  In 1908 he built his cotton gin 

and has operated that plant ever since.

Mr. Ross married in 1888 Susan E. Walker, daughter of William Walker, of Star, 
Mississippi.  Their married companionship continued for over a quarter of a 
century, Mrs. Ross passing away September 15, 1914.  She was the mother of a 
large family of children, including four sons:  William A., a fireman with the 
Texas & Pacific Railway, and associated with his father in the gin business;  
Alton P. in the oil business at Harmon, Louisiana;  Eldes J. and  Wayne W., 
attending school.  The daughters are:  Mamie L., wife of Rev. J. E. Henkie, of 
Slagle, Louisiana;  Nora J., wife of W. I. Emmons, an automobile dealer at 
Mansfield;  Virgie, wife of N. E. Timmons of Mansfield;  Hattie M., wife of 
Noulan Bridges, a sawmill operator at Pleasant Hill;  Maggie L., wife of Larry 
Moffitt, in the oil business at Cotton Valley, Louisiana, and  Daisy E., at home. 

Mr. Ross married after the death of his second wife, Mrs. Emma Magee, daughter of 
Rev. A. H. Edmondson, of Braxton, Mississippi, and widow of F. W. Magee.  
Mr. Ross and family are Baptists.  He is affiliated with the Woodmen of the 
World and Knights of Pythias, having served as chancellor commander of the 
Knights of Pythias.  As a young man he was elected and served one year as 
constable, but resigned that office.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 9, by Henry E. Chambers.  
Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.