Emmett Ross Papers

Emmett L. Ross, son of James and Sarah Wailes Ross, soldier, poet and newspaper editor, was born in 1838 in New Orleans, Louisiana and died in 1891, of blood poisoning following a spider bite. He served in the Civil War and achieved the rank of Captain. Best known for his poem The Sock that Baby Wore, he was the editor and publisher of the Canton Mail, called the Canton Picket after 1880. As a journalist he specialized in articles to be read at reunions of Confederate soldiers. His most famous poem was first performed at the Kosciusko Convention of the Mississippi Press Association in 1875, and went on to be widely republished in multiple formats, including as a musical composition. Other popular works include The Solid South (1879), written to honor a soldier felled by yellow fever, and A Crack at Creation. At the time of his death he was the Democratic nominee for the State Senate from Madison County.

He was married to Mary Jane Collins, and together they had nine children: James C., Howard Galloway, Sophie, Clara Mabel, Mabel C., Eleanor Clair Ross Carruth, Emmet L. Jr., Adah Ellis, and Thomas Collins

Mary Jane Collins Ross was born in 1840 in Canton, MS and died there in 1912. She was the only child of Thomas Collins and Eliza Jane Cohea.

James C. Ross was born Dec. 25, 1865 in Canton, MS and died in Jackson, TN in 1886.

Sources: Henry, Robert Hiram, “Emmett L. Ross”, in Editors I Have Known Since the Civil War, 1922

The Mississippi Poets, E.H. Clarke and brothers, 1922

Woodville Republican, 8/15/1891, p. 3

Gilbert Family Tree, Ancestry.com