Columbus M. Ross, M.D. of Texas County, Missouri

Columbus M. Ross, M. D., graduate of St. Louis Medical College, and physician and merchant at Houston, was born in Giles County, Tenn., February 8, 1833, and is the son of Elam L. and Dorcas (Vansandt) Ross, both natives of Tennessee. The parents left their native State in 1856, locating near Marshfield, Mo., and here the father followed agricultural pursuits the remainder of his life. He died in Marshfield in March, 1857, at the age of fifty-seven years. The mother is yet living, is seventy-four years of age, and is now a resident of Polk County, Mo. Both parents were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The paternal grandfather of our subject was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. He immigrated to Middle Tennessee about 1800, and there died at the extreme age of ninety-eight years. He and two sons were in the War of 1812. Columbus M. Ross was the eldest child born to his parents. He received his education at Pleasant Gove Male Academy, and began the study of medicine at Ashland, Tenn., receiving his diploma in 1866. In 1856 he came to Missouri, locating at Marshfield, and began the practice of his profession. At the breaking out of the late war he entered the Confederate army as assistant surgeon in the Seventh Brigade, Missouri State Guard, and was afterward surgeon. At the close of the war he went to Illinois, and remained in Montgomery County for three years; then in 1868 he came to Houston, where he was engaged in the successful practice of his profession until 1882, when he was elected county clerk. He held this position three years. Dr. Ross has been married three times, first in 1857 to Miss Adaline Matilda Cloud, who died at Springfield, Mo., in 1862, leaving two children, Beauregard and Adaline. In 1864 the Doctor took for his second wife Miss Susan A. McClary, who died in 1869, leaving two children: C. M., Jr., and Susan A. In 1870 Dr. Ross married Mrs. Mary A. McClellan. The Doctor is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South; is a member of the I. O. O. F., and is one of the oldest Masons in Southern Missouri. He is a Democrat in his political views.