David Eli DeRoss

biography

DeRoss, David Eli , physician and surgeon, Corry, was born in Crawford County, Penn., June 2, 1845, son of Alexandria De Ross, a surgeon of Philadelphia, Penn., a native of Paris who came to Crawford County, Penn., in the year 1826, dying March 20, 1864, from the effects of an injury received from a runaway team; he was the seventh son in his family, of whom six brothers and his father died of the yellow fever in 1805. Our subject is also the seventh son in his family, in which there was only one girl; five of his brothers served in different regiments in time army, one of whom was killed at Hatcher’s Run in 1865. D. E. De Ross was reared on a farm, where he remained until he was sixteen years of age, attending the district school. From then until his eighteenth year he was in Meadville College, graduating in 1863. In March of the same year, he became Superintendent of a female college in Johnson County, Mo., at the same time acting as First Lieutenant of the Home Guards; in July (same year), he became Surgeon in the Fifth Missouri Cavalry. At the expiration of a year, he became Hospital Steward of the Second Missouri Light Artillery, which position he filled from April, 1864, to November 28, 1865. In July of the latter year, he became Surgeon of a brigade in an expedition against the Indians. Going from Elkhorn, Neb., through the West, they were attacked by a large party of Indians, and lost several hundred men, besides suffering from hunger and thirst. They were forty-two days on Powder River and Yellowstone, during which time they subsisted on mule meat; they went to Salt Lake, Denver, Colo., and finally to St. Louis, where they were mustered out. Our subject again taught school for three months. He then returned home, and attended the university at Philadelphia one winter; he then went to the United States Medical College in New York for a year. graduating in 1869. The following year he spent in the South, still in pursuit of knowledge. He was in the medical field from 1870 to 1873. Mr. De Ross was married, June 19, 1873, to M. M. Royal, of Kinsman, Trumbull Co., Ohio, who was born May 26, 1848. This union has resulted in two children— M. La Roy, born June 17, 1876, in Corry, Penn., and Lura E., born in Corry, Penn., January 20, 1882, died April 2, 1883. Our subject was at one time a resident of Cincinnati, practicing his profession, and also graduating in the Eclectic Medical College January 26, 1875. He came to Corry, Penn., April 26, 1875, and has since been actively engaged in his profession. He is President of the State Eclectic Medical Association of Pennsylvania, and Secretary of the Northwestern Eclectic Medical Association.

History of Erie County, Pa Containing a History of the County: Its Townships, Towns, Villages, Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc.: Portraits of the Early Settlers and Prominent Men; Biographies; etc., etc. Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co., 1884.