History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Lewis W. Ross
LEWIS W. ROSS was born in Butler County, Ohio, October 15, 1827. At the age of twenty he left his father's farm with but a district school education and studied two years at Farmers College, near Cincinnati. He then entered Miami University, Oxford, from which he graduated in 1852. He then began the study of law at Hamilton, Ohio, gaining admission to the bar in 1854. Two years later he came to Cass County, Iowa, where in 1858 he began to practice law. In 1861 he removed to Council Bluffs and was elected to the State Senate in 1863 to represent the district consisting of the counties of Fremont, Mills, Cass and Pottawattamie. He served in the Tenth and Eleventh General Assemblies, taking especial interest in educational legislation. In 1864 he was chosen a regent of the State University, serving altogether about twelve years. In 1880 he became a professor of law in the University and the following year was elected Chancellor of the Law Department. As a regent he was largely instrumental in establishing the law, medical and homœopathic medical departments. Chancellor Ross was the author of “An Outline of Common Law and Code Pleading,” and “An Outline of the Law of Real Property.” He died at Council Bluffs, November 22, 1902.