Erskine Mayo Ross

Background

Erskine Mayo Ross, the son of William Buckner Ross and Elizabeth Mayo (Thom), was born in Belpre, Culpeper County, the fourth of five children. On his father's side his ancestry was English, and on his mother's, Scotch.

Education

As a boy he attended the Virginia Military Institute, and while enrolled as a cadet there participated in various engagements in the Civil War. He graduated in 1865.

Career

On September 11, 1865 together with Otis Allen Glazebrook and Alfred Marshall, Ross organized the Alpha Tau Omega college fraternity in Richmond, Va. Projected as a national organization, it was the first such fraternity to be formed after the Civil War (W. R. Baird, Baird's Manual, American College Fraternities, 12th ed. , 1930).

The thirty-first congress of the fraternity, held in Los Angeles in 1929, was known as the Ross Memorial Congress. In 1868 Ross began the practice of law in Los Angeles. He soon obtained a commanding position in the legal profession of Southern California, in 1879 was elected justice of the state supreme court for the short term, and in 1882 was reelected for the full term of twelve years.

He resigned this position in 1886 to engage in private practice as a partner of Stephen M. White, but within a year was appointed by President Cleveland to the federal district court of the southern district of California, and in 1895 advanced to the United States circuit court. This latter position he held until his resignation thirty years later, when he was nearly eighty years of age.

On Sept. 5, 1893, in the case of Chum Shang Yuen, a Chinese laborer resident in California, who had failed to register in accordance with the provisions of the so-called Geary Act of May 5, 1892, Ross upheld the validity of this act, and ordered the deportation of the defendant (57 Fed. Reporter, 588). The decision led to a bitter quarrel between the Judge and Richard Olney, attorney general of the United States, who was opposed to the enforcement of this particular section of the act, but in California the decision was exceedingly popular.

On July 22, 1895, Judge Ross declared the so-called Wright Irrigation law unconstitutional under the "due process" clause, thereby invalidating some millions of dollars worth of bonds, and throwing the water laws of California into great confusion (68 Fed. Reporter, 948). His decision confirming the title of Leland Stanford Junior University to its endowment made possible the continuation of that great educational institution (69 Fed. , 25; 161 U. S. , 412). Of greater significance both from a legal and a social point of view was his decision, at the time of the Pullman strike in 1894, in the case of W. H. Clune and three associates, that a concerted action of a number of individuals to prevent the transportation of trains with Pullman cars was an unlawful conspiracy punishable as such, and in contempt of the Court's order against interference with the transportation of mail and interstate commerce (62 Fed. Reporter, 834). In his charge to the Grand Jury in connection with this case he stated that "no man has a legal or moral right while continuing in the employment of another to refuse to do the work he is employed and engaged to do" (p. 835).

Ross was a charter member of the California Club, one of the five founders of the city of Glendale, and a horticulturist of note. Ross died in Los Angeles, leaving by his will nearly a quarter of a million dollars to various philanthropic and educational institutions, including $100, 000 as a prize foundation to the American Bar Association.

Achievements

• Ross's service on the federal bench as a judge was one of the longest on record. His decisions were recognized for their clarity, impartiality, and fearlessness, and were seldom reversed by the higher courts. He was one of the three founding fathers of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. He was the founder of the city of Glendale. The suburb of Glendale known as Rossmoyne perpetuates his name. In his will Ross left nearly a quarter of a million dollars to various philanthropic and educational institutions, including $100, 000 as a prize foundation to the American Bar Association.

Membership

Member of the California Club

Connections

On May 7, 1874, Ross married Ynez Hannah Bettis; one son was born of this marriage. After the death of his first wife, he married, June 1, 1909, Ida Hancock, widow of Henry Hancock of Los Angeles. She died in 1913.

Father:

William Buckner Ross

Mother:

Elizabeth Mayo (Thom)

Spouse:

Ida Hancock

Spouse:

Ynez Hannah Bettis