Peter Ross

As printed in 1902

PETER ROSS.

One of the fine farms in Lykens township is owned by Peter Ross, who has a valuable tract of three hundred and nineteen acres, all under a high state of cultivation and improved with all modern accessories. He has resided thereon for many years and is numbered among the leading agriculturists of Crawford county".

Mr. Ross was born in Germany. November 19, 1836, a son of Peter and Margaret (Simmermacher) Ross, whose family numbered six children, namely: Catherine, who married Chris Kibler, of Chatfield township; Peter, of this review; George, who died in 1899; Philip, who was one of the first contractors on building in Bucyrus, and now makes his home in this city; Margaret, the wife of Charles Jacobs: and William, who is connected with the planing mills in Crestline, Ohio.

During the first eighteen years of his life Peter Ross, of this review, remained in the fatherland, and during that period pursued his education in the public schools. It was in the year 1854 that he came to America as a passenger on a sailing vessel, which was twenty-eight days in reaching the harbor of New York. The following year his parents also came to the new world. Our subject spent the first year after his arrival in working as a farm hand in Vernon township, and in 1855 he came to Lykens township, where his father purchased eight acres of land, upon which he now resides. Only fifteen acres of the land had been cleared, and a log house was almost the only improvement on the place. Mr. Ross continued to engage in agricultural pursuits upon that farm until 1866, when he went to Jackson, where he was employed for a year. Later he rented land for a year and then returned to the old homestead, where he has since remained a resident. As his financial resources have increased he has made judicious investments in property and is to-day the owner of three hundred and nineteen acres, constituting one of the attractive and desirable farms of the county. The fields are thoroughly tilled and usually yield excellent crops. In his farming operations Mr. Ross has ever been industrious and progressive, and his place, in its neat and thrifty appearance, is proof to the passerby of the careful supervision of the owner.

In 1867 Mr. Ross married Miss Elizabeth Schimp, and unto them have been born ten children: Emma, deceased; Philip; Jacob; Henry, deceased; Charley, Adam, Tilley, Henry, Martha, who died on the 18th of October, 1 901, and Christian. The parents are members of the Lutheran church, in which Mr. Ross has served as trustee and as a township official. He contributes liberally to its support and is deeply interested in its welfare and growth. He exercises his right of franchise in support of the men and measures of the Democracy. His life has been one of honorable activity, in which his enterprise and industry have enabled him to overcome all obstacles and work his way upward to success. It was a wise decision that brought him to America, for in this land he found the opportunities he sought and has gained a comfortable competence.

As printed in A centennial biographical history of Crawford County, Ohio .. (1902). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.