Ross, Leonard F.

Born: 1822-07-18 Lewistown, Illinois

Died: 1901-01-17 Galesburg, Illinois

Flourished: Springfield, Illinois

Leonard F. Ross received a first-class education, attending his father’s private school, and being tutored by Charles E. Blood. He attended Illinois College for one year, before engaging the in the study of law. He was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1845 and commenced practicing law in Lewistown. He was the first secretary of the Fulton County Agricultural Society and served as the first president of the Avon Agricultural Society. At the outbreak of the Mexican War, Ross volunteered for military service as a private in Company K of the Fourth Regiment of Illinois Volunteers. In September 1846, soldiers in Company K elected him first lieutenant, a rank he held until mustering out in May 1847. After the war, he returned to Lewistown and resumed the practice of law. In November 1849, he won election, as a Democrat, as county clerk, a position he held until 1853. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Ross organized Company H of the Seventeenth Illinois Infantry, serving as colonel of the company. In April 1862, Ross was promoted to brigadier general. He resigned from service in July 1863. He was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for Congress in 1868, and as an Independent candidate in 1874. He served as collector of Internal Revenue under Andrew Johnson.

Ross married Catharine M. Simms in November 1845, with whom he had seven children. Catherine died in 1862 and, in 1865, Ross married Mary E. Warren, with whom he had four children.

Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Fulton County, ed. by Jesse Heylin (Chicago: Munsell, 1908), 673, 677-78; History of Fulton County Illinois (Peoria, IL: Chas. C. Chapman, 1879), 138, 341, 345, 356, 357, 405, 893-94, 978, 981, 982; Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1903), 1:847; 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; The Portrait Monthly (New York: T. B. Leggett, 1864), 1:88; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Lewistown, Fulton County, IL, 2; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Fulton County, 13 November 1845, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; The Chicago Daily Tribune (IL), 18 January 1901, 4:2; Gravestones (Leonard, Catharine), Oak Hill Cemetery, Lewistown, IL.