Major H Ross

"The Zion Methodist Episcopal Church has been organized in our village, nearly 45 years ... It occupies an unpretending wooden buildingon Wheat street, near Corn, which will seat about 400. The number of members is about 80, over whom, as pastor, is Major H. Ross."

Directory of the Village of Ithaca, 1869-70, 22.

Ithaca Journal Office, Ithaca, NY

"The Rev. Major H. Ross, a prominent clergyman in the A.M.E. Zion Church for the past fifty-six years and formerly of the Douglass Church of Elmira died yesterday morning at his home, in Rochester after an illness of a few weeks of a complication of diseases. He was seventy-six years old and was born in Maryland. As a young man he entered the church and has been one of its leading teachers all of his life. Last year he celebrated the fifty-sixth year of his services and attended a reception tendered to him. In 1876 he was offered a bishopship in Zion Church but he preferred to remain a pastor and declined the honor. He had held important charges, notably in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Troy, Saratoga, Ithaca and elsewhere. His last church was at Jamestown. In the year 1906-7 he held the pastorate in the Auburn A. M. Zion Church, and during the past four years had been presiding elder for the Western New York conference. He was also a director of the Harriet Tubman Home. The decedent served during the Civil War as a servant to General B. F. Tracey of Owego."

"Rev. Major H. Ross," Elmira Star-Gazette [Elmira, NY], December 20 1909, 2.

        “Rev. Major Hillery Decoursey Ross was born in the township of Friendship, Md., January 21, 1835. His father, Benjamin Ross, and his mother, Rebecca Decoursey, were formerly slaves. His father purchased his own freedom and that of his wife. Major was the youngest of fourteen children; at the age of six he was bound out to Mr. John Childs, a wealthy farmer and mechanic, to learn a trade. Mr. Childs was a leading member in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and considered a zealous Christian. He saw that Major was a promising boy, and he sent him to school with his children, where he was taught the common branches. Major continued to pursue his studies, and placed himself under the tuition of Rev. R. L. Dashiell, D.D., then President of Dickinson College, who taught him Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. Drs. Dashiell and McCauley and Bishop Simpson took great interest in instructing him, with a view of sending him as missionary to Liberia. Major embraced religion while young; his early life was spent in studying and preparing himself for future usefulness in life. He was always a great lover of music. At ten years of age he was put under the instruction of W. B. Bradbury, of New York, author of the Lute of Zion, Mr. Barrett, Henry M. Leach, and other noted musicians. He soon becamea leader in vocal music, and made such proficiency that he was elected a member of the National Musical Association, and is still recognized by that association. In 1856 he was licensed to preach, and labored successfully throughout Anne Arundel and Calvert Counties, Annapolis, and Baltimore, Md., until the war. He enlisted in the army, and served in the 109th New York Regiment, under Colonel B. F. Tracy. After the battle of the Wilderness he came with Colonel Tracy to Owego, N. Y., where he made his home. He joined the Genesee Annual Conference, which met in the city of Elmira, N. Y., in September, 1864. He has been an earnest worker and acceptable preacher, and held large and prominent stations in various large cities throughout the connection: Little Falls, Syracuse, Rochester, Ithaca, Wilkesbarre, Saratoga Springs, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D. C., Baltimore, Troy, Newburg, Kingston, and Elmira, N. Y., where he is now stationed. In 1876 he went to Canada and organized the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Chatham, Ontario; Roderick Station, Windsor, and other points. The church now called New Canaan Station, Gesto, Ontario, was the first permanent establishment of the Zion connection in Canada after the British Methodists divided under Bishop Greene. He is a man of marked ability, a close student, well posted in literature, genial and kind-hearted. He was delegate to the General Conference which met in Louisville, Ky., 1876, and several other General Conferences. He was also a member of several important committees. He published a pamphlet of two sermons on Our Fallen Heroes and The Signs of the Times, which was highly commended by the press. Rev. Ross is extensively known as an able theologian and logical preacher, whose life and character as a Christian minister give power to his sermons and win souls to Christ.

  He is fortunate in having a companion who is among our very best, most useful and intelligent women.”

J. W. Hood, One Hundred Years of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church; or, The Centennial of African Methodism, New York: A. M. E. Zion Book Concern, 1895, 616-618, Documenting the American South, https://docsouth.unc.edu/church/hood100/hood.html