A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans,
written & compiled by William E. Connelley, 1918
George Brinton Ross
is chief grain inspector of Kansas. His residence is still
at Sterling and in Rice County his activities as a farmer, business man and
banker have been centered for over thirty years. Mr. Ross was instrumental in
securing the passage of a bill by which the office of the state grain department
was removed from Topeka to Kansas City, Kansas. This has proved a wise measure,
since it has enabled the grain department to perform the business which this
inspection service deserves. It has increased the volume of business performed
by the department, since it places all the grain landed on Kansas City, Kansas,
side readily accessible to the inspectors. There is no state in the Union that
now contains a higher efficiency in its grain inspection than Kansas. Those
competent to judge say that this improvement is principally due to George B.
Ross and at least there can be no question that the department standards and
service have improved 100 per cent since he came into office.
Mr. Ross came to Kansas a poor boy in the early 80's and
even he is willing to admit that he has made something more than a moderate
amount of success in farming, stock raising and business affairs generally.
George Brinton Ross was born on a farm in Whitley County, Indiana, August 12,
1864. He was one of three children, all of whom are in Kansas. His brother Frank
W. is president of the Farmers State Bank of Sterling, while William Ross is a
farmer in Rice County. The parents of these brothers were William and Catherine
(Knop) Ross, the former a native of West Virginia and the latter of
Pennsylvania. The Ross family came originally from Scotland and the first
American members located in West Virginia. The vocation of the families on both
sides have been largely agricultural. Some brothers of William Ross were
soldiers in the Civil war. William Ross went to Indiana with his parents when a
boy and spent the rest of his life in Whitley and Allen counties, Indiana. He
died in Whitley County in 1875. Judged by the standards of the time he was a
successful farmer and stock man. He had only a meager school education, but had
rounded out his powers by a habit of observation and a constant effort to keep
himself well informed on matters of current interest. He possessed that honesty
and integrity that made him a man of mark in the community, and he was
frequently addressed by his neighbors for advice. In matters of politics he was
a democrat, but so far as known was never a candidate for any office. For many
years he was an enthusiastic member of the Masonic Lodge and filled all the
offices or chairs in the order. He was also active in the Baptist Church, while
his wife was a member of the United Brethern denomination. William Ross by a
first marriage had two children, one of whom is John Ross, a retired farmer of
Rice County, Kansas.
George B. Ross spent the first eighteen years of his life
in the country districts of Indiana. He attended public school there and also
was a student in the graded school at the town of Churubusco. He was eleven
years of age when his father died and that loss made him dependent on his own
efforts earlier than might otherwise have occurred. As a boy he worked on farms
at wages oŁ $10 a month, attending school in winter time.
In 1882 Mr. Ross followed his half-brother to Rice County,
Kansas. His mother had in the meantime married John S. Smith, who also came to
Rice County. The family bought 160 acres of railway land, and G. B. Ross found
opportunity to perform some of the back-breaking toil involved in the conversion
of this raw prairie into a farm. Mr. Ross subsequently bought this farm himself.
On February 14, 1886, when he was twenty-two years of age,
he established a home of his own by his marriage to Lydia L. Stout. Her father
William Stout came from Kentucky and settled in Rice County in 1877. Mr. and
Mrs. Ross had four children. Ursa is the wife of S. H. Vincent, living near
Sterling in Rice County and they have three daughters. G. Murray is a graduate
of the Hutchinson Business College and is half owner and active manager of the
Grain Products Company of Wichita. He is married and has two children, one
daughter and one son. Paul is a graduate of the University of Kansas and is now
principal of the high school at Casselton, North Dakota. Carl is pursuing his
studies in the second year of the State University.
Since coming to Kansas Mr. Ross has traveled a long road on
the way to prosperity. He had enough ambition to keep him steadily plodding
along and his indomitable will made him careless of obstacles and indifferent to
discouraging circumstances. The foundation of his career has been farming. For
many years he has been a breeder of thoroughbred Shorthorn cattle, Percheron
horses, and Poland China hogs. He has also been something of a fancier in
poultry. This industry he carried on chiefly at Alden, Kansas. He is now owner
of more than five hundred acres of fine Central Kansas soil. He assisted in
organizing and is director of the Farmers National Bank of Hutchinson, is
stockholder and was interested in the organization of the Mid West National Bank
of Kansas City, Missouri, was one of the organizers and a stockholder in the
Alden State Bank and the Farmers State Bank of Sterling. He promoted the
organization and assisted in the building of the first farmers elevator in Rice
County in l903 at Alden. Thus his name is closely linked with a number of
enterprises in that section of the state.
Politically Mr. Ross is a democrat. He represented his
district in the State Senate in 1901, and was a member of the Lower House of the
Legislature from Rice County in l913-15. During 1913-14-15 Mr. Ross was
president of the State Board of Agriculture, and has been a member of the board
for a number of years. In the Legislature he Was a member of the Ways and Means
Committee and was also on the State School Book Committee. He actively supported
and did much to bring about the policy of a state owned printing plant. was a
member of the State School Book Committee three years and was a member of the
Building Committee and helped build and equip the State Printing Building.
Mr. Ross is president of the Horse Breeders Association,
the Kansas Improved Stock Breeders Association and for a number of years was a
director and in 1913, president of the State Fair at Hutchinson.
The office he now holds was awarded him by appointment from
Governor Hodges on July 1, 1913. He was not a seeker for the honor and
responsibilities, and it came absolutely without solicitation on his part. It is
a noteworthy tribute to the efficiency with which he has developed and
maintained this department that he was reappointed by a republican governor, Mr.
Capper, in 1915. When he took charge of the affairs of the State Grain
Department only sixteen persons were performing its limited duties. He realized
at the beginning that a state inspection service worthy of the name required
organization and scientific business management and a force of properly equipped
men who could furnish service promptly and with such expertness as to give
inspections proper prestige. At the present time Mr. Ross has about a hundred
persons employed in the grain inspection service. Another fact is that when he
took charge of the office its finances had regularly shown a deficit. The
department is maintained on the fee system and the grain shippers act under no
compulsion when they accept the inspection. Thus such a department must prove
its value before it will become popular with the shippers and the fact that the
department now shows a surplus of more than $80,000 in its accounts is perhaps
the most significant proof of its efficiency. It is also worthy of note that
cars of grain from Oklahoma and many other western state passing through Kansas
territory are stopped in this state to receive inspection. Thus the stamp and
certificate of the State Grain Inspection Department of Kansas has come to mean
something in the markets of the world. The department now maintains twelve
stations, included Wichita, Salina, Leavenworth, Atchison, Topeka, Coffeyville,
Hutchinson, Wellington, Lawrence and Winfield.
Mr. Ross has been a hard worker all his life. He has kept himself singularly free from the vices and practices of the average man, and does not chew, drink, smoke and has no acquaintance with cards. He is affiliated with Alden Blue Lodge of Masons in which he has filled the chairs; with Sterling Chapter Royal Arch Masons, and the Knights Templar Commandery, and also belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Modern Woodmen of America. Mrs. Ross is active in the Baptist Church, while the children are Methodists.