Background
Ross was born Charles Joseph Kelly to William and Caroline (née Brown) Kelly at Montreal, Quebec, where his father was employed as a carpenter.
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Charles Joseph
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Ross began as a circus entertainer with P. T. Barnum before his stage debut on the April 5, 1885 at Miner’s Bowery Theatre in Manhattan as a singer and impersonator. Next he performed with Herman’s Transatlantics in a variety act at the Atlantic Gardens Bowery Theatre. Over the next few years, Ross would develop his talent as a farce comedian playing with vaudeville companies in New York and on the road.
Ross married actress Ada Towne (known professionally as Mabel Fenton) on June 9, 1887, during a stopover at Deadwood, South Dakota amidst a vaudeville tour of the American West.
The couple soon created the act Ross and Fenton and within two years became a staple of the Weber and Fields Company in New York performing their farce productions of classic and popular plays of the day. Ross later formed his own company and continued to perform well into the early decades of the twentieth century.
The couple appeared in at least two films. The first, of Nancy Sykes, in 1897 and How Molly Malone Made Good, in 1915.
Foreign a number of years, Ross Fenton Farm was a popular mecca for New York area artist and entertainers.
Most of the resort burned to the ground in 1950. Some of the original houses are still standing, including the main house of Charles Ross and Mable Fenton. Ross died on June 15, 1918 at Ross Fenton Farm after a long illness and failed operation.
Ross" wife Mabel died on April 19, 1931 in Los Angeles at the age of 66.
They are buried together at Glenwood Cemetery in West Long Branch, New Jersey.
