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File contributed to the Fulton County ILGenWeb Project
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Source: Atlas Map of Fulton County, Illinois, 
Andreas, Lyter, and Co., Davenport, Iowa. 1871
(page 35)

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Harvey L. Ross, the subject of this narrative, was born October 11th, 1817, in Seneca County, New York. He was the second son of Ossian M. Ross, who came to what is now known as Fulton county in 1821 (it at that time being a part of Pike county), and settled on a quarter section of land, half a mile north of where Lewistown now stands. He was the second white person that settled in the boundary of Fulton county (John Eveling being the first, who settled on Spoon river, six miles from its mouth). 
    
Ossian M. Ross was the father of four sons and two daughters, named as follows: Lewis W., Harvey L., Leonard F., and Pike C., and his daughters, Harriet and Lucinda; all of whom are now living in Fulton county, except Lucinda, now wife of Judge Wm. Kellogg, who is living in the city of Peoria, and was the first white female child born in Fulton county. His two youngest sons, Leonard and Pike, were also born in Fulton county. Ossian M. Ross was born and raised in Duchess county, New York; moved from there to Seneca county, New York, and from there to Illinois. He was the proprietor of Lewistown, was the first sheriff and the first postmaster in the county, and held many important offices. He brought with him several artisans, among whom was a carpenter, a shoemaker by the name of Swetling, and a blacksmith by the name of Nimon. The latter two died many years ago, and were buried on the east side of Lewistown, near where the old Presbyterian church stood, which was the first burying ground in the county. He laid off the town of Havana, now in Mason county, and moved there in 1830, where he died in 1837. A few months after his death his family moved to Canton, where his widow has lived ever since. She is now about eighty years old, and is enjoying good health. 
    
Harvey L. Ross, at the age of twenty, returned to Havana, and took charge of the old homestead. He kept the, Havana Hotel, which had formerly been kept by his father, and which, in those days, did an extensive business; kept the ferry across the Illinois river; kept a woodyard for the accommodation of steamboats; was commission merchant, and kept three large warehouses for the storage of goods and produce; kept a livery stable for the accommodation of the public; had a stage route from Springfield to Lewistown, which made three trips per week; was postmaster at Havana under the appointment of President Van Buren; carried on a large farm, and was extensively engaged in stock raising -- all of which he superintended himself, besides having to go twenty-five miles every two weeks to see a young lady, whom he afterwards made his wife. He remembers helping to carry bark to cover the shanty that his father's family lived in while their log house was being built. He, attended the first school that was taught in the county, by Hugh R. Colton. The school house was built of round logs, mud chimney, with puncheons for floor, seats, and writing-desks, and oiled paper for window glass. It stood about where the county clerk's office now stands. 
    
He was at the first fourth of July celebration in the county, which was in 1823. It was held on the side hill, north of where the Methodist church in Lewistown now stands. John and Jacob Jewell were the drummers, and Enos Jewell played the fife. Ossian M. Ross made the speech, and all bands, both men and women, helped to drink the egg- nogg and hollow "hooray!" A tall hickory tree was trimmed and the bark peeled off, which answered for a liberty pole. They had no flag, but a hat of Ossian M. Ross, with two large plumes and a cockade in it, that he had worn when major under General Scott in the war of 1812, was put upon the top of the liberty pole. The next fourth of July celebration, in 1823 [sic?], was held in the south part of town, a little east of where Dr. Veach formerly lived. The evening after the celebration the Pottawattamie Indians, to the number of a hundred or upwards, held a war dance on the same ground that the celebration had been held on. 
    
At the age of fifteen, Harvey L. Ross carried the mail from Springfield to Monmouth on horse-back. The post offices on the route were: Springfield, Sangamontown, Athens, New Salem (where Abraham Lincoln then kept the post office), Havana, Lewistown, Canton, Farmington, Knoxville, and Monmouth. There was no house and no direct road, at that time, between Monmouth and Knoxville, a distance of twenty miles. His guide was points of timber along the route. He still has a very vivid recollection of his hair gently raising one cold night in January, as be was riding along, on his way from Monmouth to Knoxville, near where Galesburg now stands, on hearing a pack of wolves set up a tremendous howling a few yards from him. He carried the mail from Springfield to Lewistown a year, without missing a trip. He thinks it was from July, 1833, to July, 1834. It was during the memorable year of the high water. He swam his horse over streams as often as six times a day, with the mail bags lashed across his shoulders. 
    
Mr. Ross lived at Havana during the summer of 1839, when he was the only person in the place that did not have the fever and ague. He is now fifty-three years of age, and has never had a day's sickness since his recollection. During his youthful years he was remarkably fond of hunting and trading with the Indians. He has killed turkeys and small game when seven years old, and deer when twelve. He has killed as many as sixteen wolves in three months. He was on board of the steamboat Liberty, the first steamboat that ever ran up the Illinois as far as Havana. She was commanded by Captain Bailey, one of the proprietors of the town of Pekin. He has been cook on a keelboat and clerk on a steamboat. He remembers of partaking of a piece of a fat bear killed in Fulton county by Andrew Loswell. 
    
Mr. Ross never had the advantages of an education. He was sent to Jacksonville to school, but had been there but five weeks when he received the news of the death of his father. He came home and did not return. 
    
Mr. Ross was married on the first day of January, 1840, to Jane R. Kirkpatrick, daughter of Charles Kirkpatrick, of Canton. They have had three sons and two daughters. The oldest son, Frank, enlisted as a private in the eighty-fourth regiment Illinois volunteers, when in his sixteenth year; he served three years, was promoted to first lieutenant, and was in some of the hardest fought battles during the war. He is married, and lives on a farm near Macomb, McDonough county. The oldest daughter, Harriet, is married to Mr. Thomas Hall, and lives in Rushville. The second son, George, is attending college in Jacksonville. The youngest son and daughter, Joe and Mary, are living at home. 
    
Mr. Ross moved to Vermont in 1844, and improved a farm in heavy timber, adjoining the town of Vermont on the south, there being but five acres in cultivation and a log house on the land when he moved upon it. He now has his farm well improved, with a thousand bearing trees; he has raised, some seasons, upwards of ten thousand bushels of apples; has a cider mill and press with which he can make twenty barrels of cider per day. 
    
Mr. Ross takes great interest in the general improvement of the county, and has contributed, he thinks, about five thousand dollars for the building of railroads through the county. He takes a lively interest in the old settlers' meetings. His house is always open for the accommodation of an old settler, and nothing gives him more pleasure than to have a right good friendly chat with an old settler about auld lang syne.