Ross, Lewis W.

Born: 1812-12-08 Seneca Fall, New York

Died: 1895-10-30 Lewistown, Illinois

Flourished: Lewistown, Illinois

Ross moved to Lewistown, Illinois Territory, with his family in 1812, and lived there the remainder of his life. Ross gained admission to the bar in 1839 and married Frances M. Simms the same year. A Democrat, he represented Fulton County in the Illinois House of Representatives for two terms, 1840 to 1842 and 1844 to 1845. He was a captain in the Mexican War, serving in the 4th Regiment of Illinois Volunteers under the command of Edward D. Baker. Ross supported Stephen A. Douglas in the 1858 senatorial campaign and again in the 1860 presidential campaign. He represented Illinois as a Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1863 to 1868.

Obituary, Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago, IL), 30 October 1895, 7; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Fulton County, 13 June 1839, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-2005 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 2005), 1839; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Fulton County IL, 188; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Fulton County IL, 22; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 209, 213; Theodore C. Pease, ed., Illinois Election Returns, 1818-1848, vol. 18 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1923), 346, 392; Isaac H. Elliott, Record of the Services of Illinois Soldiers in the Black Hawk War, 1831-32, and in the Mexican War, 1846-8 (Springfield, IL: H. W. Rokker, 1882), 301.