Pg 819

George C. Ross, attorney at law, was born in Franklin County, Ill., April 15, 1848, the son of Elijah and Sarah B. (Crawford) Ross, natives respectively of North Carolina and Illinois.

The father came to this county about 1840, and lived in Cave Township until his death in September, 1882. He was a prosperous farmer, and also successful in merchandising. For twenty-eight years he was a magistrate in Cave Township.

Our subject was reared to manhood in this county, and educated at Ewing College, also attended the normal school, at Normal, Ill. He graduated from the southern Illinois Normal, at Carbondale, in 1876, and began teaching, which profession he followed until 1880, or sixteen years altogether. He was principal of the Benton public schools from 1870 to 1874; superintendent of Carbondale city schools from 1874 to 1879; superintendent of Litchfield schools in 1879-80, and had charge of Ewing College six months in the absence of the president. In 1880-81 he attended the Union College of Law, Chicago, and graduated June 16, 1881. On examination before the Illinois Supreme Court he was admitted to the bar December 7, 1881, and has since practiced with deserved success at Benton.

Since 1883 he has been a partner of Judge C. H. Layman. July 16, 1870, he married Fannie England, of Tennessee. They have two sons and one daughter. In politics he is a Republican, and was elected county superintendent in 1873 by a majority of 368 in a Democratic county of 300 majority. He resigned after one year. He was a Republican elector for the Eighteenth District in 1876, and was a candidate for Congress in 1882 against R. W. Townshend. In 1877 he was candidate for nomination for State superintendent of public instruction. He is a Master Mason and a Missionary Baptist. In 1865 he enlisted, when sixteen, in Company G, Forty-ninth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, serving as a private until the close of the war.