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H. GRADY ROSS
Vol. 3, p. 1067
Book has photo

It is but a brief span of years since Choctaw courts sentenced
convicted defendants to punishment with the whip and in extreme cases
to death before the muzzle of a sheriff's gun, but that span,
calculated in items of general progress, seems far more than a
generation removed. This contrast of years and the activities asserts
itself forcibly in the life of the family of H. Grady ROSS. His
father, who is of Choctaw blood lived in that era of Choctaw history
that held much of the primitive in government and political
activities. He saw men convicted of the offense of theft and whipped
on the bare back with hickory withes [sic] in the sturdy hands of the
sheriff, and he saw men blindfolded and sent to their death by a
musket ball, also at the hands of the sheriff, in expiation of the
crime of murder. Today his son practices law in a modern court of
justice, under modern methods of procedure and in a fully civilized
community. It is indeed an interesting thing to note that Thomas
WATSON, one of the most noted of Choctaw sheriffs, who has whipped
more men under court instruction than any other living Indian, now is
a client of the young lawyer whose father was his friend in an
earlier day.

As a boy in what is now Haskell County, Mr. Ross became a cow
puncher and his experiences there are like chapters from the written
careers of the celebrated cowmen of the plains. He followed the herds
on long drives, accompanied by the chuck wagon and other equipment
necessary to the life of the cattle ranch. One drive he tells of will
illustrate some of the hardships of cow punching in that day. It
extended from Haskell County to a ranch in the Chickasaw Nation and
required seventeen days for completion, being punctuated with
frequent stampedes that required indefinite delays to overcome. The
country contained few fences and a comparatively few white settlers,
conditions that added difficulties to a task that was no small one at
best. That was during the period of the operations of the noted Belle
STARR, Oklahoma's only woman outlaw, who in her early activities
frequently was a visitor at the Ross home near Cartersville. The fact
that these incidents took place a comparatively few years ago will
serve to impress upon the reader's mind something of the rapid
development of the Indian country.

H. Grady Ross was born at Cache, Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory,
August 7, 1890, and is a son of W. T. and Lizzie (KEESE) Ross. W. T.
Ross is a native of Mississippi, and he came to the Indian Territory,
via Texas, more than thirty years ago. With him he brought to the
wilderness country his young bride and they lived quietly in the
sheltering woods of the northerly part of the Choctaw Nation, at a
time when some of the Indians who opposed the march of civilization
were at no time good neighbors and occasionally were very undesirable
ones. Besides H. Grady Ross, the parents reared a goodly family of
sons and daughters, briefly mentioned as follows: Mrs. R. A. RARBON
is the wife of a hardware dealer at Madill, Oklahoma. Mrs. M. W.
RORIE also lives in Madill, where her husband operates a garage. A.
Frank and James K. Ross are hardware dealers at Madill. Mrs. R. V.
COVEY, of Fort Worth, Texas, is the wife of an automobile salesman.
Miss Willie Ross is still at home. Mrs. W. W. HAMLIN is the wife of
an attorney at Springfield, Missouri. Dwight M. Ross, the youngest
child, still makes his home with his parents.

The early education of Mr. Ross of this review was found in the
neighborhood schools of his community. Later he was able to attend
the Presbyterian College at Durant, where he spent four years in
diligent study. He then entered Jones Academy at Hartshorne, and in
1909 matriculated in the University of Oklahoma, graduating from the
law department. In August following his graduation he began the
practice of law in Idabel as the co-partner of Louis A. LEDBETTER, a
classmate, and this association continued until Mr. Ledbetter's
appointment as probate attorney in the years 1913. Since then Mr.
Ross has conducted an independent practice in Idabel, consisting
largely of probate and civil work. His success has been noteworthy
and well deserved.

Mr. Ross being of Indian blood on his father's side, has been sought
widely in his district by young men of the Choctaw tribe now resident
in McCurtain County, many of them having been his schoolmates in
Jones Academy. He has been able to serve them in his professional
capacity to an unusual degree, and the business relations existing
between them of a particularly happy nature.

Mr. Ross was married at Madill, where his father is now living and
is occupied in the hardware business. His marriage took place on
December 23, 1913, and Miss Minnie CONTWAY became his bride. They
have one son, Louis Contway Ross, born August 3, 1915.

Mr. Ross is a Mason of the Scottish Rite branch, and his college
fraternity is the Kappa Sigma. He also has membership in the Woodmen
of the World and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is
popular and prominent in all his social and fraternal connections. He
is a democrat in politics and is a member of the Young Men's
Democratic League, and of the County and State Bar Associations.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Charmaine Keith, November 20, 1998.