Chapter 6: William2 Ross and Annie Lewis
The great era of railway building in southern Ontario took place between 1850
and 1875. Roads were poor, and there were no cars, trucks, or buses. By far the
best way to move people or goods over land was by rail, and every community
wanted a rail link to increase economic activity of all kinds. The Buffalo
Railway in the previous chapter was built quite early in this era.
By the time of confederation in 1867 there was a network of competing railways covering most of what would become southern Ontario. After 1871, the focus of railway building shifted to the transcontinental railway linking British Columbia to central Canada, and a period of consolidation began in Ontario. Companies went bankrupt, merged, and re-opened for business. Duplicate lines were closed, gaps were filled, and the railway landscape was tidied up.
‘The Grand Trunk, Georgian Bay & Lake Erie Railway was formed as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Grand Trunk Railway in March 1881 as an amalgamation of three railway companies: the Stratford & Huron Railway, the Georgian Bay & Wellington Railway, and the Port Huron & Lake Huron Railway. The total mileage of the new company amounted to 194 miles. Management of the new company completed the 62 mile Wiarton extension of the former Stratford & Huron line from Harriston to Wiarton by July 1882. In 1890, the GTR constructed a line from Park Head Junction to Owen Sound (10 miles) to meet Canadian Pacific competition as Wiarton never developed as a port.’
By the time of confederation in 1867 there was a network of competing railways covering most of what would become southern Ontario. After 1871, the focus of railway building shifted to the transcontinental railway linking British Columbia to central Canada, and a period of consolidation began in Ontario. Companies went bankrupt, merged, and re-opened for business. Duplicate lines were closed, gaps were filled, and the railway landscape was tidied up.
‘The Grand Trunk, Georgian Bay & Lake Erie Railway was formed as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Grand Trunk Railway in March 1881 as an amalgamation of three railway companies: the Stratford & Huron Railway, the Georgian Bay & Wellington Railway, and the Port Huron & Lake Huron Railway. The total mileage of the new company amounted to 194 miles. Management of the new company completed the 62 mile Wiarton extension of the former Stratford & Huron line from Harriston to Wiarton by July 1882. In 1890, the GTR constructed a line from Park Head Junction to Owen Sound (10 miles) to meet Canadian Pacific competition as Wiarton never developed as a port.’
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Railway Map in 1892
The Wiarton extension was built north from Harriston through Neustadt, Hanover,
Chesley, Tara, Allenford, Park Head, and Hepworth to Wiarton. By 1875, workers
doing surveying or preliminary stages of construction had reached Park Head. One
of these workers was a young immigrant from Scotland named William2 Ross.
As described in earlier chapters, William2 Ross had grown up in Glasgow and immigrated to Canada in about 1872. By the summer of 1875 he was 18 years old. The GMGS notes describe him as a civil engineer engaged in surveying and building the railway. Most other documents describe him as a bricklayer. He had very little formal education. He may have been doing some basic surveying job in 1875, but the term civil engineer undoubtedly overstates his role.
The legends about William2 say he was a dashing character with a terrible temper. In any case, he attracted the attention of Annie Lewis, who was living on the family farm near Park Head, less than half a mile from the new railway line. On September 6, 1875, William2 Ross and Annie Lewis were married in the nearby village of Allenford. William2 was almost 19 years old, and Annie was almost 18. Annie had been born in Goderich when the Buffalo railway was being built and her father was a railway worker. Eighteen years later she married a railway worker, when the railway reached Park Head.
As described in earlier chapters, William2 Ross had grown up in Glasgow and immigrated to Canada in about 1872. By the summer of 1875 he was 18 years old. The GMGS notes describe him as a civil engineer engaged in surveying and building the railway. Most other documents describe him as a bricklayer. He had very little formal education. He may have been doing some basic surveying job in 1875, but the term civil engineer undoubtedly overstates his role.
The legends about William2 say he was a dashing character with a terrible temper. In any case, he attracted the attention of Annie Lewis, who was living on the family farm near Park Head, less than half a mile from the new railway line. On September 6, 1875, William2 Ross and Annie Lewis were married in the nearby village of Allenford. William2 was almost 19 years old, and Annie was almost 18. Annie had been born in Goderich when the Buffalo railway was being built and her father was a railway worker. Eighteen years later she married a railway worker, when the railway reached Park Head.
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1875 Marriage Registration
Their first child was born in Walkerton, Ontario on May 7, 1877. His name was William Lewis Ross, but almost every record we have found indicates that he was called Willy. We will use this name throughout the book, to avoid having to call him William3. On the Birth Registration document, William2’s occupation is again recorded as bricklayer.
We can assume that William2 was still working on the railway construction project when Willy was born. The tracks were not laid in Park Head until November 1881, so work was probably being done near Walkerton in 1877.
A feeling for the importance of the new railway can be obtained by reading an item from ‘The Wiarton Echo’ of November 11, 1881:
‘The tracklayers moved from Invermay to Hepworth last night. During their stay in the neighbourhood, they will occupy Spencer’s Hall and board themselves. The station contractor with his workmen will arrive here next Monday and it is expected he will have the station completed at Park Head this week. Hepworth is now connected with the outer world by railway.
The construction train arrived here last Wednesday and on Thursday evening the villagers treated the trainmen to a general jollification in which sundry kegs of ale were dispensed. Friend Spencer of the Forest Hotel furnished 9 kegs, and John McKinnon of the Neebing responded equally well.’
‘The tracklayers moved from Invermay to Hepworth last night. During their stay in the neighbourhood, they will occupy Spencer’s Hall and board themselves. The station contractor with his workmen will arrive here next Monday and it is expected he will have the station completed at Park Head this week. Hepworth is now connected with the outer world by railway.
The construction train arrived here last Wednesday and on Thursday evening the villagers treated the trainmen to a general jollification in which sundry kegs of ale were dispensed. Friend Spencer of the Forest Hotel furnished 9 kegs, and John McKinnon of the Neebing responded equally well.’
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Railway Construction in Southwestern Ontario
However, William2 Ross did not continue working for the railway for long enough
to participate in the jollification at Hepworth. General George A. Custer and
his troops had discovered gold in the Black Hills of what is now South Dakota in
1874, and almost immediately the rush was on. General Custer himself met a
rather nasty end at Little Bighorn in 1876.
The boomtown in the Dakota Territory was called Deadwood. From all accounts, Deadwood was a pretty tough place. For one thing, everyone was there illegally, since the Dakota Territory where gold had been discovered was Indian land. However, the rush was impossible to stop. In August 1876, Wild Bill Hickock was shot in the back in Deadwood while playing poker. At the time he was holding Aces and Eights - known ever since as the dead man’s hand.
We know that sometime after Willy was born William2 and Annie Ross moved to Deadwood to seek their fortune. In 2004 a TV Series called ‘Deadwood’ was made about this era. The first season of the series takes place in the year 1876, and includes the death of Wild Bill Hickock. The second and third seasons take place in 1877, which was probably the year William2 and Annie Ross arrived.
The first part of the trip to Deadwood would have been by rail. William2 and Annie Ross could have taken the train from Walkerton to Yankton, Dakota Territory, where the rail line ended. The remaining 400 miles to Deadwood would have been by stagecoach. When they arrived in Deadwood, William2 probably got some kind of job related to the gold mining activity. The ‘rush’ of prospectors searching for gold was over by 1877, but thousands of fortune seekers were still arriving by stagecoach.
The boomtown in the Dakota Territory was called Deadwood. From all accounts, Deadwood was a pretty tough place. For one thing, everyone was there illegally, since the Dakota Territory where gold had been discovered was Indian land. However, the rush was impossible to stop. In August 1876, Wild Bill Hickock was shot in the back in Deadwood while playing poker. At the time he was holding Aces and Eights - known ever since as the dead man’s hand.
We know that sometime after Willy was born William2 and Annie Ross moved to Deadwood to seek their fortune. In 2004 a TV Series called ‘Deadwood’ was made about this era. The first season of the series takes place in the year 1876, and includes the death of Wild Bill Hickock. The second and third seasons take place in 1877, which was probably the year William2 and Annie Ross arrived.
The first part of the trip to Deadwood would have been by rail. William2 and Annie Ross could have taken the train from Walkerton to Yankton, Dakota Territory, where the rail line ended. The remaining 400 miles to Deadwood would have been by stagecoach. When they arrived in Deadwood, William2 probably got some kind of job related to the gold mining activity. The ‘rush’ of prospectors searching for gold was over by 1877, but thousands of fortune seekers were still arriving by stagecoach.
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South Dakota Birth Record
Births were not registered in Deadwood in 1879. This Birth Record was filed on December 4, 1939, when Harry Ross was age 60. He probably needed a Birth Certificate for some official purpose in Canada. The Birth Record was filed by his mother, who had remarried and was Annie Elizabeth Longmire in 1939. My father Bruce Ross was Harry’s son. He visited Deadwood in 1985 and obtained this Certified Copy.
In 1880 a census was taken in the United States. The official Census Day was
June 1, 1880. This census provides us with much of the information we have about
what happened in Deadwood after Harry Ross was born.
Census Place: Deadwood, Lawrence, Dakota Territory
The most dramatic information from the census record is that William2 Ross was not there, and Annie Ross reported herself as the head of the household and as a widow. The information about Willy and Harry is accurate. Annie Ross reported her occupation as housekeeper. It appears that Annie was running a boarding house with seven boarders in addition to her two young sons.
We have very little information about what happened in Deadwood, and what we do have may not be reliable. William2 Ross wound up in South Africa (Chapter 7). Annie Ross returned home to Park Head, but the events in Deadwood became the ‘forbidden subject’, and were never discussed within the family. To borrow a current expression, ‘what happened in Deadwood, stayed in Deadwood’.
The GMGS book records the story as follows:
‘William2 had the “wanderlust”. His two sons, William and Harry, were born in the Black Hills of North Dakota, in 1877 and 1879, and shortly thereafter William2 left, presumably for the gold fields of California. Annie brought her two sons back to the Lewis homestead on Concession 5 in 1881.’
Information from the GMGS book must be treated with caution, particularly the section about the Ross family on page 302. It contains a lot of details. Many are correct, but there are also several errors. It was written by Viola Quinlan during a lengthy interview with Lloyd Stevenson, who was a second cousin of Eila Ross and Bruce Ross. Lloyd Stevenson had a reputation for having a wonderful memory, but also for never writing anything down. This material should be regarded as oral history.
Returning to the short quotation above, there are two errors we can correct. Willy Ross was born in Walkerton, not in the Black Hills, and The Black Hills are in South Dakota, not North Dakota. There is also some correct information, and some information that may or may not be correct. Did William2 really go to the gold fields of California? Did Annie really return home in 1881?
Eila Ross Lawson recorded her recollections about the family and growing up in Park Head. Her version of events in Deadwood is very brief:
‘Shortly after this (the birth of Harry) William2 simply vanished and Granny was left with 2 small children to find her way back to Park Head on her own, where she lived with her parents on the Lewis farm’.
Bruce Ross also recorded his recollection of the events. His version implies that Annie did not return home until about 1883:
‘Grandfather Ross (William2) and my grandmother (Annie) apparently didn’t get along very well and he deserted her in South Dakota about 1881. Somehow or another, and I can’t understand how, my grandmother came back to Park Head with her two sons. They would be approximately six and four at the time. At Park Head she moved in with her parents.’
A final version of events was also recorded by Eila Ross Lawson. She was repeating what her father had told her about stories his father had told him when they met in South Africa:
‘William2 told Harry many stories and Harry never did know how many were true. The first was that he had not run away from Deadwood, but had been kidnapped by Indians. At some point he said he had returned to Canada.’
This is very sketchy information, but it is all we have. Perhaps we will learn more some day, but we may not. Annie Lewis Ross was a formidable person. The forbidden subject really was forbidden, and she made it stick.
For the sake of completeness, I will record my current thoughts about what happened:
I think William2 left Annie and left Deadwood shortly after Harry was born in very late 1879 or early 1880.
I think Annie knew he was gone for good, because she reported herself as a widow in the 1880 Census. If he had simply vanished or been kidnapped by Indians, she might have waited a little longer to declare that she was a widow, in case he came back.
I think Annie returned home to Park Head in 1881. This event would have been noticed, talked about, and perhaps even recorded in their diaries by the neighbours. We learned in later years that the family secret was not really a secret outside of the immediate family. Everyone in Park Head knew the story, so the date in GMGS may well be correct. After Annie Ross was left alone in Deadwood with her two boys, life was not easy. Later in her life she broke her own code of silence at least once and told Bruce Ross that she had slept with a loaded .45 Revolver under her pillow. This also makes me think that she didn’t stay too long after William2 left.
We really don’t know whether or not William2 Ross went to California. The rest of William2’s story, including the rumours and speculation, will be told in the next chapter.
Census Place: Deadwood, Lawrence, Dakota Territory
| Name | Relation | Marital Status | Gender | Age | Birthplace | Occupation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annie Ross | Self | W | Female | 23 | CAN | House Keeper |
| William L. Ross | Son | S | Male | 3 | CAN | |
| Henry Ross | Son | S | Male | 9M | DAKOTA | |
| Nathan Lowery | Other | S | Male | 21 | CO | Teamster |
| John Burke | Other | S | Male | 36 | NY | Teamster |
| E. Nicholson | Other | S | Male | 32 | IN | Miner |
| Henry Ragar | Other | S | Male | 31 | IL | R. R. Man |
| B. A. Kingsbury | Other | S | Male | 35 | OH | Teamster |
| Samuel Hacker | Other | W | Male | 42 | NY | Miner |
| William McDugal | Other | S | Male | 27 | MA | Teamster |
The most dramatic information from the census record is that William2 Ross was not there, and Annie Ross reported herself as the head of the household and as a widow. The information about Willy and Harry is accurate. Annie Ross reported her occupation as housekeeper. It appears that Annie was running a boarding house with seven boarders in addition to her two young sons.
We have very little information about what happened in Deadwood, and what we do have may not be reliable. William2 Ross wound up in South Africa (Chapter 7). Annie Ross returned home to Park Head, but the events in Deadwood became the ‘forbidden subject’, and were never discussed within the family. To borrow a current expression, ‘what happened in Deadwood, stayed in Deadwood’.
The GMGS book records the story as follows:
‘William2 had the “wanderlust”. His two sons, William and Harry, were born in the Black Hills of North Dakota, in 1877 and 1879, and shortly thereafter William2 left, presumably for the gold fields of California. Annie brought her two sons back to the Lewis homestead on Concession 5 in 1881.’
Information from the GMGS book must be treated with caution, particularly the section about the Ross family on page 302. It contains a lot of details. Many are correct, but there are also several errors. It was written by Viola Quinlan during a lengthy interview with Lloyd Stevenson, who was a second cousin of Eila Ross and Bruce Ross. Lloyd Stevenson had a reputation for having a wonderful memory, but also for never writing anything down. This material should be regarded as oral history.
Returning to the short quotation above, there are two errors we can correct. Willy Ross was born in Walkerton, not in the Black Hills, and The Black Hills are in South Dakota, not North Dakota. There is also some correct information, and some information that may or may not be correct. Did William2 really go to the gold fields of California? Did Annie really return home in 1881?
Eila Ross Lawson recorded her recollections about the family and growing up in Park Head. Her version of events in Deadwood is very brief:
‘Shortly after this (the birth of Harry) William2 simply vanished and Granny was left with 2 small children to find her way back to Park Head on her own, where she lived with her parents on the Lewis farm’.
Bruce Ross also recorded his recollection of the events. His version implies that Annie did not return home until about 1883:
‘Grandfather Ross (William2) and my grandmother (Annie) apparently didn’t get along very well and he deserted her in South Dakota about 1881. Somehow or another, and I can’t understand how, my grandmother came back to Park Head with her two sons. They would be approximately six and four at the time. At Park Head she moved in with her parents.’
A final version of events was also recorded by Eila Ross Lawson. She was repeating what her father had told her about stories his father had told him when they met in South Africa:
‘William2 told Harry many stories and Harry never did know how many were true. The first was that he had not run away from Deadwood, but had been kidnapped by Indians. At some point he said he had returned to Canada.’
This is very sketchy information, but it is all we have. Perhaps we will learn more some day, but we may not. Annie Lewis Ross was a formidable person. The forbidden subject really was forbidden, and she made it stick.
For the sake of completeness, I will record my current thoughts about what happened:
I think William2 left Annie and left Deadwood shortly after Harry was born in very late 1879 or early 1880.
I think Annie knew he was gone for good, because she reported herself as a widow in the 1880 Census. If he had simply vanished or been kidnapped by Indians, she might have waited a little longer to declare that she was a widow, in case he came back.
I think Annie returned home to Park Head in 1881. This event would have been noticed, talked about, and perhaps even recorded in their diaries by the neighbours. We learned in later years that the family secret was not really a secret outside of the immediate family. Everyone in Park Head knew the story, so the date in GMGS may well be correct. After Annie Ross was left alone in Deadwood with her two boys, life was not easy. Later in her life she broke her own code of silence at least once and told Bruce Ross that she had slept with a loaded .45 Revolver under her pillow. This also makes me think that she didn’t stay too long after William2 left.
We really don’t know whether or not William2 Ross went to California. The rest of William2’s story, including the rumours and speculation, will be told in the next chapter.
Descendants of William2 Ross and Annie Lewis