Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Ross, J. J. November 28, 1866 - 
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Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com January 21, 2011, 1:09 am

Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 730 - 731
Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     J. J. ROSS, president of The J. J. Ross Mill Furnishing Company, of 
Portland, has attained substantial success because he has worked hard and 
intelligently, and he is today regarded as one of Portland's progressive, 
reliable and influential business men. Born in Beverly, Washington county, 
Ohio, on the 28th of November, 1866, he is a son of William and Letitia 
(Green) Ross, the latter living in Portland. His father, who was a flour mill 
builder and operator, is deceased.

     J. J. Ross received a public school education, after which he was 
employed at various lines of work for several years. When twenty years of age 
he went to work for a manufacturer of milling machinery in Columbus, Ohio, and 
later became superintendent of mill construction for the Case Manufacturing 
Company, of Columbus, for which he traveled over the central and southern 
states, erecting mills. In 1892 he came to Portland in the interest of that 
company as sales manager for the Pacific coast, which position he filled until 
1900. During the following eight years he was associated with the Portland 
Iron Works as manager of the milling machinery department, and in 1908 he 
bought that department and established his own plant at Front and Pine 
streets, Portland, under the name of The J. J. Ross Mill Furnishing Company. 
His business steadily increased and in 1927, to meet the demand for larger 
quarters and better facilities, he erected a two-story building, one hundred 
by one hundred feet, at 160 East Second street north. In 1916 Mr. Ross 
established a branch at Seattle, Washington, and is now conducting the largest 
business in his line west of the Rocky mountains. He manufactures flour, feed 
and cereal mill machinery and grain handling plants, and also jobs milling 
machinery, having the agency for a number of reliable eastern manufacturers. 
He keeps a force of expert engineers, who design plants and machinery. He 
employs from twenty-five to fifty people and is prepared to take care of any 
sized contract in his line promptly and efficiently. Among the plants for 
which he has sold the machinery may be mentioned the Crown Mills, the Astoria 
Flouring Mills, the Terminal Mills, the Fisher Flouring Mills at Seattle, the 
Sperry Flour Company at Spokane, the Collins Flour Mill at Pendleton and many 
others.

     In December, 1896, Mr. Ross was united in marriage to Miss Mabel 
Billings, of Portland, and they are the parents of a daughter, Mrs. Donald O. 
Nelson, of Portland, who has a daughter, Barbara Elizabeth. Mr. Ross votes 
with the republican party, while his religious connection is with the First 
Presbyterian church, to which he gives generous support. He is a member of 
Hawthorne Lodge, No. 111, A. F. & A. M.; Oregon Consistory, No. 1, A. A. S. 
R.; and Al Kader Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S.; and likewise belongs to the Rotary 
Club and the Chamber of Commerce. He is a man of high ideals and all of his 
business transactions have been characterized by a sense of fairness that has 
gained for him the respect and confidence of all who have had dealings with 
him, while his social relations are such as have gained for him many loyal 
friends throughout the community in which he lives.

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