James J. Ross
Born in South Carolina in about 1787, James
Jeffres Ross was a member of the ""Old Three
Hundred."" He arrived in Stephen F. Austin's colony
in late 1822 or early 1823, moving onto the league
granted him near Eagle Lake in Colorado County. In
1828 he moved to the S. A. Anderson League and built
a home about one mile southwest of this site.
Col. Ross, as he was known, soon assumed a
position of leadership as captain of the militia of
the Colorado District. He was a delegate to the
second convention at San Felipe in 1833 and was one
of those appointed in 1834 to help obtain Austin's
release from imprisonment in Mexico. He helped
establish a stage line and a stop that became the
town of Fayetteville.
An important figure during the early years of
settlement in this part of the state, Ross was a
successful farmer, rancher, trader, and merchant.
Ross Prairie and Ross Creek, both in this vicinity,
bear his name. He was killed by angry neighbors in
January 1835 for sheltering Indians at his home and
was buried in nearby Ross Cemetery. His home, which
came to be known as the Ross/Martinek House, was
owned by Czech immigrant Joseph Martinek and his
descendants for nearly seventy years.
Marker is on East Farm Road 955, on the right when traveling east.
Courtesy hmdb.org
