SACRAMENTO HOME SCHOOL

Sacramento Home School, 1321 H street, is a home for young children, not only in name but also in fact. Such is evident from the records, as well as the kindly face of the teacher, Mrs. Frances M. Ross, who has had charge of the school ever since she established it in 1870. Mrs. Ross, a native of Rochester, Massachusetts, is a daughter of Clifton Wing, a sea captain and in later life a merchant. Her mother, Anne Maria Freeman, was a native of Sandwich, Cape Cod, where, in sight of old ocean, the family spent their summer holidays. She is the eldest of five children. Those who have been so fortunate as to visit Cape Cod remember what are known as the Wing schools there, three of them being under the auspices of the Society of Friends, or Quakers. At one of these Miss Wing was educated; and not only that, but her proficiency led to her engagement as a teacher for a time after her graduation. After that she removed to Boston with her parents. In 1852 she emigrated to California with her husband, David S. Ross, who had come as a pioneer of 1849. She came around Cape Horn, in the bark Saxonville, Captain Hutchins, with her husband and son and sister and daughter, was 158 days on the voyage, and landed at San Francisco May 7, 1853. After arriving in Sacramento, she saw the necessity for better school facilities for her youngest son than were obtainable here, and in May, 1870, she began teaching him. The fact becoming known, Mrs. Charles Crocker, Mrs. E. B. Crocker, Judge Sanderson, Rev. W. H. Brown and James Anthony, of the old Union, sent their children also, and before the expiration of the first year she had a school of respectable proportions. Every patron feels assured that his child receives as much attention there as if there were but one pupil in attendance. Mrs. Ross is a lady of pleasing address refinement and culture, enjoying to the fullest extent the confidence and esteem of her patrons and of those who are so fortunate as to be admitted to the circle of her acquaintance.

Transcribed by Karen Pratt.

Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. Page 475. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.

Sacramento County Biographies