**Biography updated 3/31/2024:

William Ashby Ross was born to Evan and Catherine Ashby Ross in Ohio, Kentucky at Barnett's Station according to the Ross family bible. At the age of 18, William was living with his parents in Ohio, Spencer, Indiana (distance of about 140 miles from Ohio, KY). He married his wife Jane B. Evans in Vincennes, Warrick Co., Indiana on 22 Mar, 1838. Jane was the daughter of James and Sarah Garrett Evans, who lived in Warrick, Indiana at the time (about 20 miles from Spencer). James Evans was also born in Kentucky.

William receives a land grant of 59.7 acres adjacent to his father's property in Spencer, Indiana on February 1, 1839. This is when it is discovered that his middle name was Ashby. The last name spelled Rofs (old way of writing Ross). William then sells this property about 8 months later to his sister Margaret Ross Arnold's husband James Washington Arnold on Sep. 3, 1839. By 1840, William and Jane Ross are in Ohio, Warrick, Indiana. They have one son by this time who was about 4 months old. Ohio, Warrick, Indiana is just about 11 miles from Spencer where William Ross' parents were living and about 41 miles from Jane B. Evans Ross' parents in Warrick. Their second child James is born in Evansville, and their third child, Ann Eliza Ross, is said to have also been born in 1843 in Evansville, Indiana, which is just 11 miles from Ohio, Warrick, Indiana.

By about 1845, they would have had two sons and two daughters and then moved to Wapello, Iowa, which was a very long trek of over 400 miles. William Ross' parents appear to have moved there at about the same time, The trip appears to have been hard on his father Evan, and he dies in Wapello in 1845. Evan is buried in Ohio, KY. Evan and Catherine Ashby Ross may have made the trip to Wapello, Iowa as early as 1844.

Jane B. Evans Ross' parents also made the trek to Iowa and we can find James and Sarah Evans living in Richland, Wapello, Iowa in 1852. Her parents didn't stay long and move back to Warrick, Indiana; probably before the 1860 census there. Two of Jane Evans Ross' sisters were living with her and William on the 1850 census in Wapello; Vashti and Elizabeth. It is possible that they decided to move to Richland and live with their parents by 1852. The son William Ross Jr. is missing on the 1850 census, and subsequent census records, so therefore, may not be their son who died 1910 and is buried in Pawnee, OK. The son born to William and Jane Ross in Evansville, Indiana may have died before or during the trip to Wapello, Iowa. By 1856, William and Jane are living in Wright, Wayne, Iowa, about 21 miles from Wapello, where their daughter Samantha dies. Up to this point, they had two sons and five daughters; Unknown Ross, James, Ann Eliza, Ellie, Sarah, Margaret, and then Samantha. On the 1860 census, the family is living in Gosport, Washington Township, Marion, Iowa. James, Sarah, Margaret and Mary are on this census. It appears that the daughter Ellie died before the 1860 census; possibly also in Wright, Wayne, Iowa. In 1861, their daughter Elizabeth is born, but in her obituary of 1902 in El Dorado, Butler, Kansas, her family said that she was born in Sheridan, so it is possible that the family was in Sheridan for a bit. There is a DNA match now to this Elizabeth Ross Page. By 1867, the family is still in Iowa where their youngest son John is born in Gosport, Iowa. It appears now that after John Henry Ross was born, the family then moved to Chariton, Lucas, Iowa by 1875 where Mary gets married to Thomas Edward Shockley. Their oldest son is born on December 7, 1875, Elmer Clarence Shockley. Later, Clarence needs a birth certificate and asks his Uncle John Ross to be a witness to his birth and John states that he was in his sister's home when she gave birth to their first son. So, we now know where the Ross family was in the 1870's. Chariton, Lucas, Iowa is only about 17 miles from Gosport. By 1880, they move to Sumner, Kansas with their son John. It appears that their son James Ross was the first to move to Kansas by 1870, only returning to marry Sarah McDaniel in 1873 in Appanoose, Iowa, and then returning to Kansas after marriage. In 1885, they were in Pleasant Grove (Neal Post Office) living next to the Henderson's and near their daughter Mary whose husband Thomas Shockley had died a year prior. By this time, six out of 10 children were still alive. Their son James was with his wife Sara on this census as well.

William Ashby Ross was a farmer most of his life. In 1880, on an agriculture schedule in Greenwood, Kansas, his main crop was corn and secondary wheat. His son's James and John probably helped him out on the farm. William was especially close to his brother Isaac, who also travelled with the family to Wapello, Iowa. We find him in Wapello, Iowa in 1847. Isaac was living near William and Jane Ross's daughter Ann Eliza Ross Horn and her husband Thomas Horn in 1885 in Guide Rock, Webster, NE. Isaac died in 1896 in Davenport, Thayer, NE. His sister Agnes Ross Pershall and her husband Joseph Pershall were also living in Marion, Iowa and then moved in 1880 to Barada, Richardson, Nebraska where Isaac was living after Guide Rock, Webster, NE and where Isaac died in 1896. Most of William Ross' sisters moved to Iowa at about the same time. William had another brother named Joseph who stayed in Indiana and his oldest sister Margaret Ross Arnold was living near his wife Jane Evans Ross' parents in 1860 in Warrick, Indiana before moving to Pike, Indiana by 1867. She appears to have also stayed in Indiana. Two of Williams Ross' brothers died in Spencer, Indiana in 1830 (George and Thomas). Some of William Ross' sisters move to Oregon as did his brother Benjamin Franklin Ross, who also appears to have travelled to Iowa in 1850 before moving to Coos, Oregon.

William and Jane B. Evans Ross both died in 1885 in Pleasant Grove, Greenwood, Kansas according to the obituary for their son John Henry Ross who died November 23, 1946 in Braman, Kay, Oklahoma. Also, according to John's obituary, his parents had a total of 11 children and ten of them died before he did in 1946.