Robert Shapley Ross

Robert Shapley Ross, newspaper editor, publisher, and Civil War soldier, son of Catherine (Fulkerson) and Shapley Prince Ross, was born on April 22, 1848, at Station Creek, a ranger station near Waco. He was possibly the first White child born in the environs of present McLennan County. He attended primary school in Waco, St. Mary's in San Antonio, and Baylor University. During the Civil War he was a captain in Company D, Sixth Texas Infantry.

After the war he returned to Waco, where he married Elizabeth Anne Gleen on March 12, 1871; they had one daughter. In 1874 Ross helped organize the Waco Grays, a defense organization armed by the state, and was elected captain. The Grays numbered about sixty men and drilled once a month. In 1876 Ross edited the Advance, a Waco afternoon newspaper. Later, with his brother William Hallam Ross, he owned and published the Daily Reporter. He served as deputy sheriff of McLennan County for eight years, and from 1890 to 1894 he was county treasurer. In 1912 he was one of those responsible for bringing a group of Huaco Indians to the Waco Cotton Palace. Ross died on January 11, 1923, and was buried at Oakwood Cemetery, Waco.