JONATHAN ROSS This effort made a sensation throughout the country and marked Judge Ross as a man of national fame, and beyond question shaped the policy of the nation with refer ence to our Island possessions. McKinley characterized it as the most enlightening treatment of the subject he had yet seen, and stated that it led him to a complete change of mind as to national policy in regard to the annexation of territory. At the expiration of his term in the Senate Judge Ross was appointed chairman of the Vermont State Railroad Commission and served in this capacity until 1902, when he resumed the active practice of the law. Judge Ross was twice married; first, in 1852, to Eliza Ann Carpenter, daughter of Isaiah Carpenter, Chief Justice of New Hampshire, who died in 1886. His second -wife was Miss Helen Daggett. Of the eight
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children by his first marriage five are now living. The close of Judge Ross's life was tragic in the extreme. On February 21, 1905, as he was driving with his wife, the horse ran against a railway train in Concord, Vt., and turning suddenly threw both Judge and Mrs. Ross against the moving cars. Mrs. Ross was instantly killed but Judge Ross lingered until February 23. He did not regain consciousness, nor did he know of his wife's death. Thus ended the earthly career of an eminent jurist, an able states man, and above all, an honest, incorruptible man, who has left an abiding monument to his ability in the law of his native state and a lasting influence for good in the hearts of those who knew him. BURLINGTON, VT., May, 1905.
