Almost nothing is known for sure about Charles Ross. The only thing that we do know for sure is that he had a son Charles Travis in 1866.
Family history says that he was born in France and was trained there as a physican. He came to the U.S. about the time of the Civil War and was a Union Army doctor. His speciality apparently was embalming because he was trying to develop a new embalming chemical. This later lead to his death by accidental poisoning.
Before the Civil War, embalming was a rarity in the U.S. However during that war, embalming became quite an industry. Relatives of dead soldiers wanted their sons embalmed and shipped back home for burial. Many Northern families hired independent embalmers to do this. Also the Union and Confederate army doctors did a lot of embalming. At one point this industry got out of hand and embalmers were like ambulance chasers, grabbing up bodies to embalm without any authorization. Funeral home directors would buy these embalmed bodies and display them in their funeral home windows as advertisement. At this point, the Union Army issued a command that no Union soldier body could be embalmed without Army permission.
There are a great many Union soldiers by the name of Charles Ross, but none that I have found are listed as surgeons which was the rank given to army doctors on both sides. I think it more likely that Charles Ross was not officially a Union soldier but one of the independent embalmers. He apparently was a doctor but his great interest lay in the science of embalming.
There is some evidence that he was from France. The 1910 and 1920 census of Marion County, Tn indicate that the father of Charles Travis was born in France.In a Ladies Home Journal article dated December 1950 about the life of Anna Noble Thorpe (daughter of Lena Ross), it says that Charles Ross was of high-born French and Scottish descent. He was a doctor with a degree from the Sorbonne in Paris, France. The article goes on to say that he died in early middle age from arsenic which got into his system through a cut finger while treating a patient.
In family history, Charles met his wife Hettie Brown in Chattanooga, Tn around the end of the war. Hettie Brown and her family are shown in Hamilton County in the 1860 census which would seem to confirm the location that Charles and Hettie met. They married about 1864 near Chattanooga. Charles Travis was born in 1866 and family history says that a daughter Lena was born to Charles and Hettie in 1869.
At this point the family history is somewhat muddled. There are different versions and different sources.
My mother, Allie Mae McConnell's notes indicate that Charles Ross left his family and later died of accidental poisoning. Mother knew both Lena and Lena's daughter and got this information from them in the late 1930's.
My aunt, Lena Layman writes that Charles left Hettie and family and went to New York to develop his new embalming formula. He was accidently poisoned in one of these experiments. This would have occurred about 1870 based on the ages of Charles T. and Lena at the time. Aunt Lena got this information from Silas Brown (one of Hettie's brothers) around 1920.
The family of Charles and Hettie have not been found in the 1870 census. In the 1880 census, Hettie is shown married to Hiram Fields and living in South Pittsburg. They have two children - James and Lina A(age 7). Our family knew James Fields but there is no record of Lina. It is likely that she is Lena Ross.
Combined with the fact that the Charles Ross family can not be located in the 1870 census and that there is no 1890 census, it is possible that we will never know much more about Charles. No marriage record or death records have been ever been found for Charles or Hettie. Charles Ross has not been found in the 1880 census records although it is very possible that he died before then.
Charles married Hettie BROWN, daughter of William, Wiley or Westly BROWN and Caroline, about 1864 in Near Chatanooga, Tn. Hettie was born about 1844.
Family history indicate that Hettie Brown's father was Hiram Brown of Chattanooga. It is said that he ran a "medicine store" there in the Ross's Landing area. The name of Ross's Landing has no connection with our family name Ross.
Actual census records show that Hiram Brown was not the father of Hettie. Her father was a farmer who lived in Marion County in 1850, Hamilton County in 1860 and Marion again in 1870. He apparently died between 1870 and 1880 because his wife and children are shown in the Jackson, County Alabama 1880 census near Bridgeport. His name was variously recorded as William, Wiley and Westly. That he is the father of Hettie is certain as the names of her siblings are known and are always with William in the census records. The family of Hiram Brown and his children can also be traced from 1850 thru 1880 and none of his children bear the names of Hettie or her siblings. I believe that the name Hiram as Hettie's father is a confusion with the name of her second husband who was Hiram Fields.
Hettie is shown with her second husband Hiram Fields in the 1880 Marion County census. Hiram Fields is shown on the 1891 Marion County voters list. In 1900, there is a Hiram Fields in northern Alabama living next door to James Fields and family. The ages for Hiram and James match up with the 1880 census. In 1900 Hiram is married but not to Hettie which leads me to believe that she died between 1880 and 1900 and probably between 1891 and 1900 since Hiram was still in Marion County in 1891. Hiram was about 10 years younger than Hettie according to the 1880 census.
Charles and Hettie had the following children:
+ 2 M i Charles Travis ROSS + 3 F ii Lena ROSS