OWING to the absence of the family from
the city, it was impossible to obtain another portrait of this
well-known pioneer than the one exhibited at Memorial Hall, but in
accordance with request, we send brief account of his life and services.
He was born at Brunswick, New Jersey, March 5, 1803, and when only three
years old was brought West to Cincinnati. His father settled near
the city right among the Indians. Hence the early recollections of Mr.
Ross clustered around the old log-cabin with the hard dirt floor and
many other features that invariably connect themselves with the pioneer
life. He distinctly remembered the Indians coming into the house,
throwing the deer from their shoulders on the floor, and then offering
them to his father for twenty-five cents each. At other times they
would bring a saddle of venison, and by signs make it known that they
wanted a handful of salt for it.
After spending fourteen years in the
woods, young Ross was bound out to learn the carpentering business of
Jonathan W. Lyon, Cincinnati. After the expiration of his apprenticeship
he worked one year as a journeyman, and then married a Miss Rhoda
Bradstreet, of Lebanon, Ohio, and went into business on his own account.
In the Fall of 1828 he had the misfortune to lose his shop, fixtures,
tools, etc., by fire, after which he resumed his business with good
success, and continued it till 1832, when he opened a feed-store on the
corner of Central Avenue and Seventh Street. During this year he
was elected to the city council from the Fifth Ward, and soon became one
of the most active and efficient members.
In 1839 he engaged in the steamboating
business, built the steamboat Relief, and traded on the Red River four
years. During the third season, the water being very high, he navigated
the Red River several hundred miles farther than it ever was before or
since. For fuel they burned deserted log-houses on the river bank..
During the following season, while proceeding up the same river, with a
large cargo of his own and government stores, he had the misfortune to
sink his boat on a snag, and lost every thing. Mr. Ross and one man were
upon an island until the water abated; and lived upon a scaffold resting
upon four trees.
Returning to Cincinnati in 1844, he was
re-elected .to the council, and followed the livery stable business in
company with Mr. Benjamin Higdon at the south-west corner of Eighth
Street and Central Avenue for seven years. During this time the city was
in a very bad condition, and especially as to its fire department, being
at times completely at the mercy of the various volunteer fire brigades,
among whom the most disgraceful riots frequently occurred, oftentimes
abandoning a fire to engage in fighting each other! There had been
many unsuccessful attempts to apply steam to fire-engines, but on
account of .the unlevel positions in which the boilers would be placed,
the water would, of course, be at times all at one end, leaving other
parts uncovered, and therefore impracticable. But the worms or coils of
pipe used in distilleries suggested to Uncle Joe Ross the practicability
of constructing a boiler for a steam fire-engine on the same principle,
and thereby obviate the great difficulty. He was chairman of the
committee on fire department, and as such urged upon council to
authorize him to contract with Latta, Shawk & Co. for a steam
fire-engine at five thousand dollars. His ideas were utilized, and the
result to the world is steam fire-engines everywhere. He was therefore
the "father of the Cincinnati Fire Department " as it now
exists. The cost of the first engine was found to be eleven thousand
dollars. Mr. Ross. brought out the complete engine, and having
successfully exhibited its workings, the delighted people insisted on
naming it in his honor, "The Uncle Joe Ross," he having really
evolved the idea that made this new application of steam-power a
complete success. Mr. Ross was re-elected several terms in the council,
and at all times proved himself the people's friend.
In the year 1860 he organized the Miami
Valley Fire Insurance Company of Cincinnati, and continued as its
president for over eleven years, until his retirement from the active
duties of life. He was among the first members of the Cincinnati Pioneer
Association, whose presiding officer he was one term. He honorably and
faithfully fulfilled a score of important. trusts, and will be long
remembered among those who have left their "footprints on the sands
of time," and through whose energies the Cincinnati of the present
owes its great prosperity.
While in the council Judge Burnet offered
to sell to the city for government purposes the whole tract of land
bounded by Central Avenue, Eighth, Plum, and Court Streets for $60,000,
and Mr. Ross labored faithfully to pass the ordinance, but through one
member changing his vote it was lost by a tie. Two years later the city
gave the same price for less than one-quarter of the same land.
The through thoroughfare next west of
Plum Street was first called "Lundy's Lane." On this lane a
row of four houses was erected, and being in the extreme western portion
of the city this row of houses soon became known as the " Western
Row," and in this Way the name of the houses became that of the
lane and "Lundy's Lane" became " Western Row."
This was long known as the western boundary of the city, and a long way
out. Being in New York on city business, while in the council, he was
asked where he lived, and on saying that he lived on " Western
Row," his friend remarked, with surprise, that he would not live so
far out of the city if he were given a home there.' The first
motion that Mr. Ross made to council on his return was, " Mr.
President, I want to pass an ordinance to-night that will not cost the
city a cent, and one that every body will be pleased with." It was
to the effect that the .name of "Western Row " should be
changed to "Central Avenue." It became a law that night, and,
astonishing to say, the very name seemed to give the impression that the
city was to spread westward. From that time the increase westward of the
city was unparalleled in its history.
Mr. Ross was candidate for the mayoralty
of the city in 1353, but was defeated, owing to James P. Taylor running
as an independent candidate, and thus electing Mr. Snelbaker.
Mr. Ross was pre-eminently a self-made
man, full of tenacity and energy of purpose, versatile talent, and
unflinching integrity. Throughout his career, marked by extraordinary
transitions from prosperity to adversity, he has preserved a name free
from the charge of unprincipled motive or selfish purpose. He was a man
of fine and commanding presence, and possessed of those genial qualities
that never fail to make hosts of friends. He died suddenly of cholera,
at his residence near Glendale, Ohio, July 6, 1875, universally mourned
by all who had known him.
Source: In Memoriam
Cincinnati 1881, Cincinnati, A. E. Jones, Publisher, 1881.
