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biography from Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
DAVID D. ROSS, of Scott Township, was born in Tazewell County, Ill., Aug. 2, 1835, and is the eldest son of Nimrod and Ann Eliza (Davisson) Ross, both natives of West Virginia, whose biography appears on this page. David came with his parents to Scott Township, this county, in April, 1845. He attended such schools as were in reach of his father's home until the spring of 1856 when he went to Clarksburg, W. Va., where he attended the Northwestern Academy two years. Returning to this county in the spring of 1858, he found a company of young men fitting up a wagon for a trip to Kansas, and accompanied them for the summer. He returned and taught school the winter following, in Prairie College School-house; the second winter in Adams Township, and the third winter in Monroe, assisting in the cultivation of the farm during the summer season. Mr. Ross was united in marriage with Miss Sarah J., daughter of Jacob and Mary A. (Lamer) Himes, April 24, 1861. Mrs. R. was born in Venango County, Pa., Jan. 1, 1839, and removed with her parents, in May, 1848, to Zanesfield, Logan Co., Ohio. (For biography of her parents, see elsewhere in this volume.) Here she attended school until the winter of 1853-54, and the year following at Geneva Seminary, in Northwood, Ohio. In the following summer, of 1855, she taught school near Zanesfield, and during the winter of 1855-56 was teacher in the primary department of the schools at Middleburg, of which Rev. William Cheever was Principal. In the spring of 1856 she came with her parents to Six-Mile Prairie, in this county, and the following spring removed to Scott Township. She taught at Prairie College Schoolhouse during the summers of 1857 and 1859, and in the summer of 1860 at Pleasant Dale Schoolhouse, Madison Township. In the winter of 1860- 61, in company with her brother Theodore, she attended a select school in Oskaloosa, taught by Prof. J. F. Everett On the 15th of May, 1861, she removed with her husband to section 16, Scott Township, where they now reside. Mr. and Mrs. Ross are members of the Presbyterian Church. They have four daughters-Ann Mary, Maggie A., Minnie E. and Sarah Vida. Ann Mary and Maggie A. are graduates of Penn College, having received the degree of B. S., June 24, 1885, and are teaching in this county. Minnie E. is a member of the class of 1887, Penn College. Mr. Ross owns 102 acres of land, eighty of which is improved; the balance is timber.
Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy