By Terri Jo Ryan

Tribune-Herald staff writer

One of Waco’s “favorite sons” is celebrating a birthday this coming week — but the party taking place today is almost 900 miles way.

Lawrence Sullivan “Sul” Ross, lawman, statesman and Confederate brigadier general, is being saluted by the Iowa Sons of Confederate Veterans, who are dedicating a monument in his honor in his birthplace, the tiny town of Bentonsport, Iowa.

A handful of Texas Division SCV members will be on hand for today’s dedication, including guest speaker Dr. Douglas Guthrie, a Mexia podiatrist and coordinator of the Civil War Round Table at Baylor University’s Lifelong Learning program. Guthrie, a past president of the Historic Waco Foundation, is a nationally recognized expert on Ross’s life.

Ross was born Sept. 27, 1838, near Bentonsport, the fourth child of Catherine Fulkerson and Shapley Prince Ross. He and his family moved to Milam County in Texas a year later.

In 1849, they settled in the newly created town of Waco, where Shapley Ross became an entrepreneur and landowner.

The family was given four city lots, exclusive rights to operate a ferry across the Brazos River and the right to buy 80 acres of farmland at $1 an acre. The Rosses built the first house in Waco, a double-log cabin on a bluff overlooking the springs.

Sul Ross entered the preparatory department at Baylor University in 1856, when the college was still located in Independence, Texas. Following his graduation, he enrolled in Wesleyan University in Florence, Ala. (now the University of North Alabama) in 1857, from which he graduated in 1859.

In early 1860, Ross enlisted in the Texas Rangers. Late that year, in the Battle of Pease River (about 260 miles northwest of Waco), Ross’s company killed a Comanche chief who’d led brutal raids on the settlers.

That chief turned out to be the husband of Cynthia Ann Parker, who’d been kidnapped as a child in 1836 and raised among the tribe. Returning Parker and her toddler daughter, Topasannah, to her white family won lasting fame for Ross.

Early in 1861, after Texas had voted to secede from the United States and join the Confederacy, Ross enlisted as a private.

Following his May 28, 1861, wedding to Lizzie Tinsley of Waco, Ross set out on his first mission. Eventually, he led the Sixth Texas Cavalry. In early 1864, he was promoted to brigadier general. He participated in some 135 battles.

When the Civil War ended, Ross was only 26. He and his wife had nine children over the next 17 years, but only six reached adulthood.

In 1873, McLennan County voters elected Ross sheriff. In his two years in office, he helped form the Sheriffs’ Association of Texas. He later was elected to the state Senate’s 22nd District in 1880.

Ross ran for governor as a Democrat in 1886, and was so popular in office, the Republican Party declined to run anyone against him in 1888. During his two terms, the new Capitol was completed. 

When he left the statehouse, he stepped immediately into the presidency of the then-shaky Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (now Texas A&M University). Under his presidency, student enrollment soared, new buildings were constructed and public faith in the institution returned.

Ross became ill while on a hunting trip along the Navasota River with family and friends during Christmas vacation 1897. He returned to College Station on Dec. 30, where he died in the early evening of Jan. 3, 1898.

Reportedly, the entire student body of the college accompanied Ross’s body back to Waco, where Confederate veterans in gray uniforms formed an honor guard. Several thousand people attended Ross’s burial at Oakwood Cemetery.

Steve Wooley of Temple, Central Texas brigade commander for the Texas Division SCV, said state members have contributed financially to the Iowa project, in the spirit of shared heritage.

Sources: www.SulRoss.edu, Handbook of Texas Online; Ross Family Papers, Texas Collection, Baylor; http://TexasRanger.org; http://Texas-SCV.org, http://HistoryCentral.com.