Sul Ross was born September 27, 1838 to Shapley Prince Ross and Catherine Hanby Fulkerson Ross in a family community in Iowa, then still a territory. He was the fourth of their eight children. Per Judith Ann Brenner’s fine biography, he was named for three family members including his great grandfather Lawrence Ross and an uncle in the Ross family named Giles Sullivan. As a child he was known as “Little Sul” and later just “Sul,” the nickname by which he became known. The biography notes that his great grandfather Lawrence had been captured by Indians from his Virginia school when he was six and lived with Cherokees until he was twenty-three and had to be persuaded to return to his family.
Sul’s father Shapley grew up on the frontier and had almost no formal education. He married Catherine, well educated and from a prosperous family, in November of 1830. Soon, they struck out on their own and moved first to Missouri, then to the Iowa Territory before returning to Missouri a last time. While there, soon after Sul was born, a traveler told them of his experiences in the Republic of Texas. Shapley, Catherine and their small family decided to move to Texas. There they made camp at a place called Waco Springs on the Brazos, before the town of Waco had begun. Shapley pledged his oath to the Republic, entitling him to a land grant of 640 acres near what would become the town of Cameron, but attacks by native tribes led him and others to seek more security elsewhere among other settlers. They were able to survive, living on what food they could gather and game they could find. Still, Sul would recall, the risk of raids and attacks was high and he personally remembered confrontations with Comanche and other tribes. They drilled as a family on how to react when events occurred and there were frequent encounters. After some time, probably around 1845, Shapley decided to relocate to near Austin to a location with more settlers. They remained in that area until around 1849 when Shapley accepted an offer from a land owner named Jacob de Cordova to move to a new community not too far from Waco Springs where they had camped years earlier. Shapley negotiated the purchase of around 280 acres of land in and near the new town site.
Sul remained around Waco as his siblings were born starting with his sister Kate, said to be the first Anglo child born in what is now McLennan County. Sul’s education included preparatory schooling at Baylor in Independence and college at Florence Wesleyan University in Alabama. He completed his college work in 1859. While on hiatus from college, he was serving in a frontier battalion. On one occasion, the story is told that young Sul was leading a group of friendly Indian scouts and a detachment of the 2nd Cavalry to Indian Territory near the Wichita Mountains around 1856 when they clashed with a village of Comanche. Ross was seriously injured in the battle, but recovered over time.
In the process, the troops rescued a young female who did not know her name nor the names of her parents. She also could not speak or read English. Ross’ parents fostered her and named her Lizzie Ross after Ross’ fiance and future wife Lizzie Tinsley. She was raised with their other children. Lizzie is listed as being twelve years old and one-half Indian in the 1860 federal census. She is also mentioned in a story as traveling with the family in an 1870 trip to California. Lizzie lived to be an adult and reportedly later married.
Two years later while on another break from school, he led a group of volunteers under a detachment of U. S. Cavalry. They came upon a Texas Comanche settlement near the Pease River. This is the battle in which Cynthia Parker was recaptured. Her story is much more widely known than that of Lizzie. She had been with the Comanche for over twenty years. After her recapture, Cynthia never was comfortable with her Parker relatives. She died a few years later, despite being reunited with her siblings and others. In this same battle, it was reported by participants that Cynthia’s husband Peta Nocona was killed along with other adult males in the settlement in what is now Foard County. Cynthia and Peta Nocona had at least three children, two sons and a daughter. One son, Quanah Parker, escaped and became a Comanche warrior until his surrender in 1875. The other two children died. Quanah was never reunited with his mother during her lifetime. Quanah maintained that Peta Nocona was 70 or 80 miles away at the time. While at the Texas State Fair around 1910, Quanah repeated his statement that his father was not killed at Pease River. By then, Ross had been deceased for around twenty years.
The manner and location of Nocona’s death is not settled. Circumstances of the battle are disputed with public stories saying that it was a full fledged conflict with warriors while other accounts describe the Comanche settlement as a “meat camp” and that the dead were older, weaker adults. The fact that one of the dead was identified as Nocona served to enhance the reputation of Ross after the Civil War although this event was only one of several in which he was distinguished.
During the Civil War, Ross enlisted as a private in his older brother Peter Ross’ company but transferred into what became known as the Sixth Texas Cavalry. As the war advanced, he was involved in numerous key battles. As a result of his actions, he was promoted in rank of colonel and later brigade commander. He was once more promoted to brigadier general in the last days of 1863. He remained in Confederate service until the end of the war.
At the beginning of the Civil War Ross had married Elizabeth Dorothy “Lizzie” Tinsley. The couple had at least eight children. After the war, Ross returned to McLennan County where he farmed and raised cattle with his brother Peter. In late 1873, Sul was elected sheriff of McLennan County and named his brother Peter as a deputy. Under his leadership, the sheriff’s department was successful in arresting more than 700 suspected criminals. Ross resigned as sheriff in 1875 and was elected to represent the area in the Constitutional Convention of that year. He was elected to the Texas Senate in 1880.
Ross was successful in his campaign to become the 19th governor of Texas in 1888 and served two consecutive terms. He declined a third term and left office in January of 1891. Soon after leaving, he was selected to be the fourth president of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (now known as Texas A&M University).
Ross died at the age of 59 while serving as the college president. Although no death certificate was issued, the circumstances were apparently triggered by events that occurred on a hunting trip. Over the Christmas break beginning in 1897, Ross and others went deer hunting near Navasota. The weather was cold and rainy. Ross complained of indigestion after a snack and drove himself home to College Station while the others remained. His condition declined and he passed away on January 3, 1898. Elizabeth survived him until her death in 1905. Both are buried in historic Oakwood Cemetery in Waco.
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