The Ross family

We all have a wee bit o’ the Irish in us, as Grammy’s maternal ancestors came from Ireland. At an unknown date—probably the mid-1800s—Samuel J Ross (born about 1828) and Elizabeth Cowen Ross (b. ca. 1832) came to the United States, probably to seek a better life (this was around the time of the Great Potato Famine).

The Rosses begat two sons: Sam (birthdate unknown) and George M., born May 4, 1851, in Indiana County, Pennsylvania. As a young man, George traveled farther west, settling in Iowa. On May 23, 1878, he married Alice Carey Price at the residence of George W. and Harriet Jane Moore (her sister and brother-in-law) two miles north of Essex in Page County.

They had five children: David Cameron (b. Jan. 25, 1880), Ann Elizabeth (b. Jan. 7, 1882), George M. Ross, Jr. (b. March 22, 1887), Samuel J (b. July 6, 1888) and Carl Price (b. April 22, 1891).

This second Samuel J (everyone called him “Sam”) married Edith Iola “Iola” Johnson on February 8, 1915, at the home of her parents, Eugene Magiliard and Mary Ellen Snyder Johnson, at 409 First Ave. in Audubon (the Rosses moved into this house in December 1946).

Grammy recalls Sam later telling her about how a piece of Iola’s bouquet fell off during the ceremony and, to him, “it was like a bomb went off!” He survived, and someone gave the newlyweds a ride to the depot in Audubon (they didn’t have a car) so they could catch a train to California for their honeymoon.

Sam and Iola had two children: George Eugene (b. Sept. 16, 1916) and Mary Ellen (b. Dec. 9, 1920).

On June 4, 1939, Mary Ellen married Lawrence Duane “Ted” Moreland.

And the rest, as they say, is history!