Captain Charles Ross
Captain Charles Ross, of Carthage, Springfield township, the well known steamboat captain and pilot, was born in 1806 in Warren county, Pennsylvania, where his parents (Scotch descent) had removed from New Jersey in 1800. In 1810 the family removed to Columbia, Hamilton county, and from there to Cincinnati in 1815. When twelve years of age he went to New Orleans, going on a barge down and walking part of the way back. After this he took several trips down and back in steamboats. In 1825 he commenced piloting steamboats to and from Cincinnati and New Orleans, and, when the river was too low, running keel-boats and flat-boats. Between the years 1825 and 1852 he commanded not less than thirty steamers of different classes, and during all that time never met with any serious accident. In Buchanan's administration he was appointed supervising inspector of steamboats, with headquarters at St. Louis. During the war he helped to get up regiments, and volunteered to help the Cincinnati surgeons to the fight at Fort Donelson, and brought back a boat-load of sick and wounded to Cincinnati. His boat plied between all the important places on the Mississippi and the Yazoo rivers, sometimes carrying troops, at other times bringing off sick and wounded. He did efficient service for Admiral Porter, and also transported Colonel Garfoe;d's regiment from the Big Sandy to the south. He was at Lexington, Kentucky, during the Morgan raids, and was at the siege of Vicksburgh; at this place he had an operation performed on his lip, to remove an epithelia or lip cancer, cutting off the whole of the lower lip. It would take a volume to recount all the romantic incidents connected with the captain's history during the war; suffice it to say he performed gallant service until he resigned, June 11, 1864. He has travelled with many distinguished men, such as Andrew Jackson, General Scott, General McComb, General Harrison, General Samuel Houston, Colonel David Crockett, Colonel Thomas Benton, Zachary Taylor, Prentiss, and a host of others. He has now two sons and three daughters grown up, twelve grandchildren and three great-grand-children. His wife is dead.
From: History of Hamilton Co., Ohio; Compiled by: Henry A. Ford, A.M. and Mrs. Kate B. Ford; Publisher: L. A. Williams, 1881