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Iowa Historical
Record R-S Unless otherwise noted, biographies submitted by Richard Barton. "A Picturesque Character" by Hiram Heaton In the Iowa Historical Record for April, 1897, Dr. Salter recalls "what Dr. Wm. Ross, the first postmaster, and the first clerk of the court in Burlington, told him in June, 1883, viz: 'that when he came to Burlington in 1833, he brought his father with him, who had been a Revolutionary soldier, and one of the first settlers of Lexington, Kentucky.'" While it is true Dr. Ross' father was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, he served on the side of the mother country; yet his return to America , after the war, and his eventful life as a pioneer, deserves more than a passing notice. William Ross was born in the north of Scotland , about the year 1753; he was the only child of his parents, his father dying when he was an infant; possibly before his birth. At seven years of age he was apprenticed to the shoemaker's trade; at fourteen his mother's brother, then Duke of Sutherland, bought for him an Ensign's Commission in the 42nd Regiment of the British Army (the 42nd is always composed of Scotch soldiers), in order that the "lad's" mother might have the half pay a British officer drew while on the retired list. When the war between Great Britain and the American Colonies began, young Ross was mustered in as an ensign, and his regiment was assigned to duty in America . He was on active duty the entire seven years of the war. When peace was restored, he returned with his regiment to Scotland , was retired, and soon afterwards returned to America . He was employed for a time in the trade between Philadelphia and the West Indies; later he was in trade at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and about the year 1792, he found himself in Lexington, Kentucky, where he engaged in boot and shoe making, to which he soon added a stock of groceries, and afterwards dry goods, and was then fully launched in the mercantile calling. In a few years Ross became one of Lexington 's wealthiest men; he built the first brick house in the town; and having married shortly after coming west, his home was one of the most attractive in the entire country, being blessed with four sons and two daughters. But soon a grievous change came to this prosperous home. In 1816 a financial crash swept all of Mr. Ross' prosperity away; a brick block, worth ten thousand dollars, had to be sold for three hundred dollars, with which he was able to pay his last dollar of indebtedness. To add darkness to this gloomy time, Ross' wife died, and after providing homes for the three youngest children, he went to Louisville , and lived for a time with his son-in-law, John S. Chinoworth, a wealthy merchant of that place. In 1821 Mr. Ross removed with his son, Sulifand S., to Rush County, Indiana, on to a farm where he lived five years, and then went to Palmyra , Missouri where his eldest son, Thomas, was practicing medicine, farming, and was also engaged in a general mercantile trade. In 1831 Mr. Ross went to Quincy , Illinois , with his son, Dr. William R., where they engaged in a general merchandise business; the father managing the store, and the son practicing in his profession. In August of 1833 they moved to what is now Burlington , Iowa : then called by the Indians Shok-o-kan, by the whites, Flint Hills, and sometimes, by way of derision, "Pin Hook." But little more than a month did Mr. Ross live in the new town; he died in September, and was buried on, or near, what is now the public square. Some years afterwards Dr. Wm. Ross had his father's remains removed to a private cemetery, four miles southwest, on the farm of Judge William Morgan. Mr. Ross was over six feet in height; was neither slender nor corpulent; by those who remember seeing him he is described as having been "eminently handsome." He was a great admirer of Thomas Paine's writings. His love for the mother country ceased with his place in her army, and he invariably referred to Great Britain , during the War of 1812, as being ever unjust and aggressive. On the return of Henry Clay from his term in Congress, Mr. Ross demanded an explanation of some of his measures; however, Clay's explanation not being quite satisfactory, Ross merely offered him his left hand, which Clay grasped and shook, hoping for a return of confidence, when his course was better understood. At the time of his death, Mr. Ross was supposed to be eighty years old, the exact date of his birth having been lost; his hair was a clear white, and singularly, he is said to have declared, it was no whiter in his old age than when he was twenty years old. It seems a strange coincidence that so many years after the War of Independence, one, and only one, participant of each side of that struggle should find his way to Iowa , and lie buried within its bounds. Cyrus
Sanders, a native of Ohio, but a resident of Iowa since
1839, when he came to Johnson County, died near Iowa City, at the home of his
son, Horace, April 24th, 1887. Mr.
Sanders was a surveyor and a farmer. He chose the former occupation as a youth, but since coming
to Iowa only followed it now and again at the solicitation of his friends.
This, however, though intermittingly, was quite often, he having been
elected county surveyor of Johnson County over and over again, without regard to
party rules of rotation, for his geodetic accuracy, together with his
benevolence and suavity, extended his popularity beyond the lines of his party.
In his leisure hours he delighted in cultivating his native gifts as a
writer, and as his memory was a rich treasury of pioneer lore, he recorded a
great deal of early local history that has thus been saved from oblivion, and he
furnished much of the text of Wood's "History of Johnson County," a
work which deserves more praise than it has received.
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