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Atchison KS St. Louis MO Ann Arbor MI Album

From the 1845-1890 Catalogue of Phi Alpha Society, Illinois College, Item 325, page 77:
“Ossian Reuben Ross, b. 16 January, 1845, at Lewistown, Ill. He attended the public schools of Lewistown and Fulton Seminary, and entered Illinois College in January, 1862. In 1862-63 he attended Michigan University [University of Michigan], and had entered upon the second year of his studies at the time of his death, which occurred at Ann Arbor, 19 October, 1863. He was a student of unusual industry and ambition and a young man of rare promise.”

From the Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield, IL), Friday, October 23, 1863, p. 3:
“A STUDENT OF THE MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY COMMITS SUICIDE. – The Detroit Free Press of the 20th, says that a young man named Ossian H. [sic] Ross, a member of the junior class of the Michigan State University [University of Michigan] at Ann Harbor [sic] was found dead in his bed on Monday morning last, having put an end to his life by cutting his arms with a razor. On the table lay a note in the handwriting of the deceased. It ran as follows:
‘Having come to the conclusion that my life is no benefit to myself or friends, but a disgrace to both, I have determined to put an end to it. God forgive me if I do wrong. I die in the hope of Heaven.
OSSIAN R. ROSS
10 o’clock 40 minutes, A. M.’
The young man who thus rashly put an end to his life is said to have been about twenty years of age, and a son of Hon. L. W. Ross, of Fulton county, Representative in Congress from the 5th Congressional District in this State.”

Ossian R. Ross was likely the basis for the character of Harry McNeely, son of the character of Washington McNeely (who was based on Col. Lewis W. Ross) in Edgar Lee Masters’ “Spoon River Anthology.”