Career
Ross arrived in the Oregon Country in 1845, part of a train of 200 wagons that branched off of the Oregon Trail via the Meek Cutoff. Ross filed a provisional land claim in 1846 on a parcel of roughly 400 acres surrounded by the Willamette River, a location later known as Ross Island. In 1851 Ross married Rebecca Deardorff, an 1850 immigrant to the Oregon Territory.
Ross operated a dairy farm on Ross Island and was listed as a livery stable owner at 165 First Street in early Portland.
