Alameda
County
Biographies
ANDREW ROSS
Although entitled by many years
of activity to a retirement from the practical cares of life, Andrew Ross, a
successful rancher of Alameda county, still gives his time and attention to the
cultivation of his property. He is located one and a half miles north of
Newark, in Washington township, on a ranch consisting of eighty-five acres,
which has almost doubled in value since he purchased it in 1879. He also owns
fifty acres in the hills, the entire property being brought to the highest
state of cultivation possible, and enhanced in value by comfortable and ample
buildings, fences, and other improvements.
A descendant of Scotch ancestry, Mr.
Ross was born in the north of Ireland June 25, 1825, and was reared to young
manhood in that locality and trained to the practical duties of a farmer’s life
upon the paternal farm. Deciding to emigrate to the western world, where
conditions afforded better opportunities for advancement, he took passage on a
sailing vessel, and after a voyage of six weeks landed in New York City in
June, 1852. His ability to gain a livelihood lying along agricultural lines, he
at once went to the country in Connecticut and worked on a farm and in a paper
mil for five years. In February, 1857, he left New York and came to California
by way of the Isthmus of Panama, landing in San Francisco March 17 of that
year. He came at once to Alameda county and found employment upon a ranch, remaining
so engaged for three years, after which, with his accumulated earnings, he
purchased a ranch of fifty acres near his present location. This he cultivated
and improved and made his home until 1879, in which year he purchased his
present ranch of eighty acres, which was part of an old Spanish grant. Since
that time he has made his home upon this property, engaging in its cultivation
and improvement.
In November, 1862, Mr. Ross was
united in marriage with Jane Houston, who was also a native of the North of
Ireland, and to them were born nine children, three of whom died young. Those
surviving are as follows: Mary Jane, wife of L. C. Stevenson of Oakland;
Adeline, wife of J. E. Foster of Fresno; Rachel; Emma and Mabel, twins; and
Edith, at home. In his political convictions Mr. Ross is a Republican, and in
religion was reared in the Presbyterian Church. For many years he was trustee
of the Presbyterian
Church at Alvarado.
Transcribed by: Cecelia M.
Setty.
Source: History of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast
Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 776-777. The
Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Cecelia
M. Setty.
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