Ross served county, state & nation

In my last column, we were introduced to attorney H.P.H. Bromwell, who ran a newspaper in Vandalia in 1852, went on to join the bar and then became a Fayette County judge. Bromwell moved to Denver, Colo., in the 1870s, when it was still a territory, and helped Colorado become a state.

Some of what I learned about Henry Bromwell came from memories of Robert W. Ross, who began to work as an office boy for Bromwell’s “Age of Steam and Fire” when he was 9 years old.
Ross was born just north of the Vandalia city limits on Dec. 31, 1842, and lived here his entire life. His parents, Joshua and Martha Phillips Ross, were both socially prominent in Vandalia during the Capitol years. 
Robert Ross was a witness to Vandalia’s history, and it is no wonder that he was consulted for each of the three early histories of Fayette County and Vandalia, published in 1878, 1904 and 1910.
The “Historical Souvenir of Vandalia,” published in 1904 was his work. With technical help from newspaperman Lon S. Matherly, this 176-page book was full of pictures of Vandalia places and people.
Paul Stroble, who has recorded Vandalia’s early history in his book “High on the Okaw’s Western Bank,” tells us that it was Robert Ross who first mentioned the Vandalia Land Co. when he called attention to the name’s previous existence in the 1910 history. 
Ross attended Vandalia’s public school and continued to work in the newspaper office until he left Vandalia to attend Tuscarora Academy in Juanita County, Pa.
When he returned from the academy in 1862, Bob was appointed deputy county clerk under Charles W. Jenks, continuing in that position until he accepted a clerkship under merchant Benjamin Capps.
In 1863, Dr. George L. Jackson, a druggist, hired Bob away from Capps, offering him, according to Ross, an increase in pay “much larger than Capps thought he could afford to pay,” and he stayed in this position until he was appointed deputy circuit clerk under William Hankins nearly three years later, in 1866.
From this time on, Robert W. Ross would serve the people of Fayette County, the state and then the nation.
The Democratic Party again nominated him for the office of circuit clerk. He was elected by a handsome majority and was elected to succeed himself in 1880.
After the expiration of his term as circuit clerk, he remained in the office as deputy under William G. Thompson, his successor, until August 1886, when he was appointed by President Grover Cleveland as recorder of the General Land Office at Washington, D.C.
This position was a rather responsible one and held particular weight, because the new west was being opened up. He held this position until April 1889, when he resigned and returned to Vandalia.
By the Democratic caucus, and in 1893, he was elected chief clerk of the House of
Representatives, and in 1899 was elected to a seat of the House of Representatives, representing Fayette, Montgomery and Bond counties.
Robert W. Ross died on Aug. 16, 1928, and his grave in South Hill Cemetery is in the veterans’ plot to honor his service as a 100-day man with Co. C, 143rd Illinois Infantry.
Ross never married, but kept company with Eliza A. “Lida” Barnett for 40 years before his death.
Robert W. Ross was a gentleman of the old school … dignified and respected.

Robert W. Ross