Rossville, Illinois

Ross is preeminently a farming township. With the exception of the pleasant little village of Rossville, on its northern border, where a few families collected along the timber long known as Liggett's grove, where the Attica road crosses the Chicago road, and which in time grew into one of the prettiest little western villages in all this country, and one or two mills, her entire enterprise was agricultural. The sick- ness which is consequent upon every early settlement, made havoc with the early calculations of many a family ; but the great natural resources of the rich country they had come into, needing only the rasping of the plow and the raking in of the golden grain to put its energetic laborers into the possession of competence and wealth, those who first learned that the prairies would support human life reaped the richest rewards of their superior judgment or experiments. The Gundys, Gilberts, Greens, Davisons, Chenoweths, Manns and others found in Ross the full fruition of youthful hope in the landed prosperity of maturer years. For a long time, and up to within the last decade, the people were not vexed with railroads or "those bonds" which even in apostolic times were a chief source of regret. In 1872 the Chicago, Danville & Vincennes, now known as the Chicago & Eastern Illinois railroad, was built through the center of the town, giving rail connection with the county seat on the south and Chicago, and in 1877 the Havana, Rantoul & Eastern road was built through nearly the center of the township east and west, so that they are supplied with all the railroads they will ever need, to the remotest point of time. The latter is a narrow-gauge road, and as far as this portion of the state is concerned, is a pioneer effort. While it is claimed to be a financial success, it is still, probably, a problem to be solved by time, whether it will follow the wake of all the more recently built roads into the wreckers' hands.

Passage source: History of Vermilion County, Together with Historic Notes on the Northwest, Gleaned from Early Authors, Old Maps and Manuscripts, Private and Official Correspondence, and Other Authentic, Though, for the Most Part, Out-of-the-way Sources, published 1879.

Andrew Davison and wife came here from Franklin county, Ohio, after they had brought up a considerable family, in 1828, and took up land in section 13 (21-12), near Myersville. He had a little means, and his children a good deal of pioneer strength and energy. He had long hoped to find a new home, where land was cheaper, so that his children could secure farms for themselves. They had seven children : James, Robert, Sally, Jane, Susana, Betty and Polly. Two of these, James and Mrs. Joseph Gundy, were married when they came, and soon after, young Joseph Kerr took the trail which the retreating Davisons had followed, and came through the timber of Indiana and married the Davison of his choice. Andrew Davison saw his children all nicely fixed, having taken up land all around him, before death called him away in 1841. The land office at this time was in Palestine, in Crawford county, a now almost forgotten country village, but there the pioneers of Vermilion had to go to enter their land, until the land department was convinced that it ought to be removed to Danville. The seven children of Mr. Davison grew up and became one of the most important families in settling this wild country. James lived on the farm which he had entered until 1873, when he moved to Danville, where he died. He left two children : a son at Myersville, and a daughter, Mrs. Tattle, at Danville. Robert carried on a farm in section 8 (21-11), one mile south of the present village of Alvin, till 1843, when he died, leaving a family of five children. His son, John, continued to work the farm until the first call for troops rung along the banks of North Fork, when he enlisted in the 4th Cavalry, and did as valiant service, stamping out rebellion as he had done in killing out the rattlesnakes on his ancestral acres. Since his return he has been engaged in mercantile pursuits at Rossville. James, another son, lives on the old homestead. He also served in the army. Robert, the third son, a young man of much promise, went with his brothers, but did not return with them. He gave his young life to his country, - a sacrifice to national unity. He died at Salem, Arkansas, a member of the 25th 111. Mrs. Ingruham lives near the old homestead, and Mrs. Magee in Indiana. Of the daughters of Mr. Andrew Davison, Mrs. Joseph Gundy died before her husband ; Mrs. Joseph Kerr died some years since, leaving five children, who live in the vicinity of Myersville ; Mrs. Josiah Henkle died early, leaving three daughters; Mrs. Mathers lived with her parents, and at her death left one daughter. Jacob Gnndy, the father of the family of that name, who have been prominent for half a century in the history of Ross and of Yermilion county, had been a soldier in the revolutionary wrar, and had moved early from Pennsylvania to Chillicothe, Ohio, where he lived on a farm until he followed his son Joseph here in 1830. Joseph had immigrated here with the Davisons. William and Thomas, and Mrs. Abram Woods came with their father. Jacob, Jr., came here a few years afterward, and soon after went to Missouri. Mr. Gundy, Sen., was a widower, and made his home around with his children ; he died at a good old age, in 1842, and was buried at the Gundy burial ground near Myersville. They made their first settlement near the south line of Ross township, near where Joseph lived. Joseph came here to find a new country, where land would be cheap, and as soon as he got across the state line he expected to find things as he wanted. He took up the first land he could find, subject to " squatter sovereignty,'' or entry. He carried on farming very successfully, and acquired nine hundred acres of land ; raised stock largely, bought and fed, but did not adopt the more hazardous and speculative undertakings; he sold his stock to drovers. He often sold to the Funks, to Williamson on Sugar Creek, to Ohio men, and to others from Pennsylvania. He had two children when he came here, and ten were born to them here, four of whom are now dead. Of the eight living children all but one live in the county : Mrs. Isaac Chrisman, in Ross ; Mrs. Dr. Henton, in Danville ; Mrs. John Davison and Mrs. Milton Lee, at Rossville ; Andrew was a large and successful farmer and engaged in mercantile pursuits, was largely interested in public affairs, was a member of the legislature in 1875, and proved by his long acquaintance with the wants of the people and the breadth of his general intelligence a useful and safe legislator. After the failure of Hon. John C. Short, Mr. Gundy and some others undertook to stand in the breach and save the important coal interest which Mr. Short held, but the continued depression of trade and the large shrinkage of values was more than they could stand, and financial failure followed. There was little reason to doubt that the immense coal fields controlled and owned by the Exchange bank, would eventually pay all the debts of that concern, but the depression of the coal trade so reduced the profit that they ceased to be a source of revenue. Mr. Gundy is now engaged in farming near Bismark. Francis and Joseph have been engaged in farming and in trade. Thomas Gundy was killed by lightning in 1855 ; he was fixing a fence when the storm approached, and started to go across the field to the house when the sad accident occurred. Joseph Gundy, Sen., died at Myersville in 1865, closing a useful and successful life. William Gundy, the other brother, who came with his father in 1830, married and raised a family of seven children, who are now scattered, the sons living in Missouri. He and his wife died in 1851. Mrs. Abram Woods, after her husband's death, went with her five children to Missouri. Thomas Gundy, who now lives at Rossville, has been a prosperous farmer, and now has practically retired from hard work. He owns the Abram Woods farm, a farm near Alvin, one at Gilbert Station, and three small farms east of Bismark. He has been remarkably prosperous in all respects. He has, however, never aspired to official position, though he has been occasionally pressed into township office. He has seen this county grow from a wilderness to a fruitful field.

Passage source: History of Vermilion County, Together with Historic Notes on the Northwest, Gleaned from Early Authors, Old Maps and Manuscripts, Private and Official Correspondence, and Other Authentic, Though, for the Most Part, Out-of-the-way Sources, published 1879.

Probably no person has ever been identified more largely in everything which pertains to the welfare of Ross than Alvan Gilbert. His father, Samuel Gilbert, writh two brothers, came from Ontario county, New York, to Danville, in 1826. They had but little idea where they were going when they made their way down the Alleghany River, and were probably attracted here more by the fact that the salt works were here in the county than any other one thing. The Gilberts established a ferry at Danville, and built a mill. It w7as rather a cheap affair, but was not cheaper than the custom of the country. With corn only six cents to ten cents per bushel, and wheat about fifty cents per bushel, it could hardly be expected that grinding for the tenth bushel would pay a return on a very large investment. Alvan worked around Danville about six years, tending mill and such other work as he could find to do, until 1832, when he married a daughter of Robert Horr, and bought his interest in the land he (Horr) had lived on, in section 25, where the Chicago road crosses the north fork. His house was a little log cabin directly in the road leading to the old bridge before the road was changed to the new bridge. He afterward, in 1839, sold this place to his father, Samuel Gilbert, and bought the Liggett farm at what is now Rossville. Mr. Samuel Gilbert was soon after appointed postmaster of the new post-office, North Fork. Dr. Brickwell, who was a neighbor of Gilbert's at this time, says that at one time the mail was delayed six weeks by high water, and when it did finally arrive, and the great rush of mail matter, dammed up for six long weeks, fell into the goodly people around where Mann's chapel now stands, and postmaster Gilbert had called in a bee of the citizens to help him open, sort, distribute, arrange, count, and deliver - for there were no railroad post-offices in those times - it was found that there was just one letter in the mail, all told ; and the Doctor thinks that had the flood lasted another six weeks it would have "dried up" the post-office itself, so that no further mail matter would ever have come there. Samuel Gilbert's house was one of the early preaching-places of the Methodists, and was the real forerunner of Mann's chapel, which stands very near the spot where his house was. It was cnstomaiw for the worshipers to take their rifles along with them when they went to church, and, when returning, should a stray deer come waltzing around in an ungodly crusade against the quiet of the Sabbath, he was very apt to get shot for his temerity. Few such Sabbath-breaking deer were ever actually known to return to the cool retreats. Samuel Gilbert died in 1855, leaving four children. His two daughters had married, and gone west, his two sons living here. Both are now dead.

Passage source: History of Vermilion County, Together with Historic Notes on the Northwest, Gleaned from Early Authors, Old Maps and Manuscripts, Private and Official Correspondence, and Other Authentic, Though, for the Most Part, Out-of-the-way Sources, published 1879.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Ross Township - it names this place 60 more 60 times.