Redheadkelly: Created page with "{{Library collection |repository=Tennessee State Library & Archives |title=Jeff Ross Papers, 1818-1992 |url=https://archives.tnsos.gov/repositories/2/resources/1350 |collection_id=AC. NO. 1997-061 |scope_and_contents=The Jeff Ross Papers comprise approximately 3.5 cubic feet plus one oversize box, spanning 1818–1992 (concentrated in the late nineteenth century). The collection includes account books, correspondence, a diary, financial records, genealogical records, lan..."

2026-08-19T07:02:01Z

Created page with "{{Library collection |repository=Tennessee State Library & Archives |title=Jeff Ross Papers, 1818-1992 |url=https://archives.tnsos.gov/repositories/2/resources/1350 |collection_id=AC. NO. 1997-061 |scope_and_contents=The Jeff Ross Papers comprise approximately 3.5 cubic feet plus one oversize box, spanning 1818–1992 (concentrated in the late nineteenth century). The collection includes account books, correspondence, a diary, financial records, genealogical records, lan..."

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{{Library collection
|repository=Tennessee State Library & Archives
|title=Jeff Ross Papers, 1818-1992
|url=https://archives.tnsos.gov/repositories/2/resources/1350
|collection_id=AC. NO. 1997-061
|scope_and_contents=The Jeff Ross Papers comprise approximately 3.5 cubic feet plus one oversize box, spanning 1818–1992 (concentrated in the late nineteenth century). The collection includes account books, correspondence, a diary, financial records, genealogical records, land and legal records, military records, notebooks, photographs, printed materials, and writings.

Correspondence forms the bulk of the collection's significance, chiefly letters from Jeff Ross to his mother Lucinda Ross and his cousin Laura Holt documenting his travels through Europe and South America (photocopies and transcriptions are also included). Land and legal records include deeds, property tax records, and papers from Ross's legal career in Savannah, along with deeds involving George Ross and the estate papers of Morgan Hood Ross — including his 1864 Civil War-era military passes, his militia commission, and land grants signed by Governor William Carroll. Genealogical records concern the Ross family and allied families. Ross's unpublished notebooks and typewritten manuscripts, though comprising much of the collection, are largely unpaginated and incomplete.

A later-added oversize box (not included in the microfilmed portion) holds an 1886–1887 Ross Academy catalogue, an 1859 deed to William Armstrong, an 1848 indenture to Morgan H. Ross, a synopsis of "Blue Ivy" (a history of a West Tennessee farm town), and four land grants — to Peter Buran (as assignee for the heirs of William Henson, 1834), Moses G. Couch (1849), Morgan H. Ross, and William B. Ross (1826), all for land in Hardin County.
|date_range=1818 - 1992
|creator=Jeff Ross (1849-1928)
|language_of_materials=English
|access_conditions=No restrictions.
|copyright=While the Tennessee State Library and Archives houses an item, it does not necessarily hold the copyright on the item, nor may it be able to determine if the item is still protected under current copyright law. Users are solely responsible for determining the existence of such instances and for obtaining any other permissions and paying associated fees that may be necessary for the intended use.
|extent=4.5 cubic feet
|library_description=Jeff Ross (1849–1928) was an attorney and world traveler from Hardin County, Tennessee, the son of Morgan Hood Ross and Lucinda Coffey Ross and grandson of George Ross, a Revolutionary War veteran and early settler of Hardin County. After his father was killed by Civil War guerrillas in 1864, Ross was educated locally and then at Cumberland University Law School, returning to Savannah, Tennessee to practice law in 1872 and briefly serving as district attorney general. Following an election defeat, he abandoned law and, in December 1878, left Savannah by canoe to become a world traveler.

Over the following years he worked as a writer, oysterman, telegraph-line contractor, patent-medicine salesman, and circus promoter across the northeastern United States, England, and continental Europe, eventually sailing to Rio de Janeiro. In Brazil he became a railway engineer working in the jungle interior, and — by his own account — was drawn into the Brazilian naval revolt of 1893–1894 (following the 1889 overthrow of Emperor Pedro II), spying for both sides and secretly sabotaging a gunboat he had purchased and armed for the Brazilian navy. He fled the country with the American consul's help and returned to Savannah, Tennessee in 1894 after roughly fifteen years abroad. He spent his later years as a farmer and writer — building a mill called "Sockwad" with Ike Ross in 1901 — lost his sight, and died in 1928.

The section closes by noting there are no restrictions on the material, though single photocopies of unpublished items may be made for individual or scholarly research use.
|location=
|subjects=Rosses of Frederick County genealogy
|related_documents=
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}}

Jeff Ross Papers, 1818-1992 - Revision history