(24 Feb. 1922-3 May 1987), historian. (Ewan Ross) Born at Martintown, GC. Parents: Ernest C. Ross (1889-1966) and his wife Pearle MacEwen (1896-1957). He was educated in the local primary school and at Williamstown High School. In the late 1930s he began to work as a farm hired man near Goderich in Huron County, Western Ontario. He joined the Canadian army at London, Ont., in March 1941, and served with the 5th Armoured Division (tanks). Badly injured in a tank accident at Aldershot in England in 1942, he recovered to serve through the campaigns in the Mediterranean and northwest Europe. While in Italy, he acquired a working knowledge of spoken Italian. He also had a working knowledge of spoken French acquired in his early years from his Ross family at Martintown, who had more knowledge of French than most of the GC Scots. Discharged from the army in March of 1946 with the return to peace, the ex-soldier lived for a short time in Martintown before resettling in the Goderich area.

     The Goderich area was his home for the rest of his life. He was married at Holmesville, Ont., on 3 Aug. 1946 to Esther MacMath of Goderich. (one adopted son) Ewan Ross was a skilled workman for many years in the factory of Champion Road Machinery at Goderich, then took early retirement, being troubled by his war injuries, at the age of 59. Ewan Ross died in the Alexandra Marine and General Hospital, Goderich, after several years of poor health. He is buried at the North Branch cemetery near Martintown. A frequent visitor to Glengarry over many years of residence in Western Ontario, in his later years he maintained a part-time residence in Glengarry for visiting purposes. The Ewan Ross Memorial Scholarship was established by Mrs Ross after his death for students in the GC high schools.

     Ewan Ross was the author of many articles on Glengarry history. He wrote much for the annual volumes of the Glengarry Historical Society, and also had articles in the annual souvenir volumes published as programs for the Glengarry Highland Games. He also wrote the following books: The Rosses of Martintown (1971), Williamstown High School: a History (1978) with G.I.Douglas Cameron, A History of Glengarry (1979) with Royce MacGillivray, The Priest’s Mill and Its Successors on the Garry River in Alexandria (1979), Lancaster Township and Village (1982), St. Raphael’s (1985).

     Ewan Ross was for many years a dominating influence among students of Glengarry history. Through his friendships, his encouragement, his phone calls and his extensive correspondence, he did an immense amount to promote his subject. Indeed, he may be said to have created a kind of little university around him, peopled by fellow students of GC history. He was tireless in seeking out and praising people who had made some recent contribution to the writing and study of Glengarry history. He would contact them by letter or phone call, or mention their work in the press–paying these attentions even on occasions when most people would not have “taken the bother.” He was always generous with his money for all public-spirited projects–and this included helping to finance GC publications, and indeed projects of every kind for the benefit of the GC public. He himself was a skilled and prolific writer, treating a wide variety of themes in a pleasant and easy-going style. He had a large collection of notes on Glengarry history and a good collection of books, and an incomparable collection of GC photographs. Yet for all this accumulation, he was not primarily a collector; or at least what he sought to collect was knowledge, and the material possessions were only instruments of knowledge. His papers and photographs are now in the Queen’s University archives.

     At a time when the writing of personal letters was losing the dominance it once had in social life, he was one of the last of the great letter writers. At least with correspondents that he knew well, he was wonderfully eloquent, graceful and affable. Though he was fascinated by GC history, he was never blind to the faults of the Glengarrians. He well knew, for example, how grim the story of GC farming was, and how irrationally the GC farm people often reacted to their economic plight. And he knew how badly Glengarrians, perfectly obsessed though they were with relatives, often got on with their nearest kinfolk, and in particular at the father-son interface. His own mind was oriented much to ideas, and theories came easily to him. One may mention as one of his most valuable generalizations– it is a theory that can now be regarded largely as a fact–that in their earlier generations in Canada the Glengarrians were at least as much occupied by the forest trades as by farming, and that they only gradually moved over to the preoccupation with farming that was the standard from about 1914. Nearly everyone who knew Ewan Ross at all well was impressed with his abilties, and his affability made him many friends. Dorothy Dumbrille may be noted, however, as someone who disliked him, and he indeed had a poor opinion of her.

     His main collaboration as a historian was with Royce MacGillivray. They met for the first time on 10 March 1973 at Ewan Ross’s home in Goderich. As their volume, A History of Glengarry, approached publication, they quarrelled and never met again.

     Ewan Ross’s brother Gordon Ross (26 Aug. 1924-14 Sept. 1983) was a well-known farmer in the Martintown area. Mrs Gordon Ross, the former Onagh Lagroix, has been for many years an important source of help and information for researchers in Glengarry history. Among other services, she laboured valiantly in the work of publishing and selling Rhodes Grant’s remarkable two-volume history of Martintown. More recently, she has operated an excellent secondhand bookstore. Ewan Ross was the grandson of the Rev. John McEwen and a descendant of the Loyalist Thomas Taylor Ross. Ewan Ross’s uncle James (Jim) D. Ross, who never married, was a Martintown area farmer who kept a diary covering the years 1917 to 1975. (MacGillivray & Ross 673, 703)

     Ewan’s Ross’s widow Esther, built a new house for herself as one of her projects during retirement. A very strong personality in her own right, she was nevertheless the ideal wife for a private scholar, selflessly making sure that Ewan had week after week abundant time available to work at his studies and collections and writing. This was not just self-sacrifice, it was skill: not every person would have known how to do it. She died 11 Dec. 2006 at Goderich.

Glengarry News 27 May 1987 * Ross gravestones, North Branch Cemetery * Ewan Ross, The Rosses of Martintown (1971), a vivid and exemplary family history * Alex W. Fraser, It Came from the Heart (A Scot from Glengarry): a Tribute to the Late Ewan Ross (1988): contains recollections by people who knew Ewan Ross, a list of his publications, other valuable biog. information, portraits * Bibliography of Glengarry: index (for his publications on GC) * Gordon Ross: obituary GN 21 Sept. 1983; large splendid photo of Gordon Ross with others, Globe and Mail 31 Oct. 1975 (article on oil pipeline across GC) * letters to editor by Ewan Ross, e.g. GN 20 May 1976 (as Glen Scott), 3 March 1977, 5 May 1982 * letter to editor by Harriet MacKinnon seeking information for the MacGillivray-Ross history of GC, GN 24 June 1976 * report by Alex Mullin, and editorial, Standard Freeholder 7 & 9 Aug. 1976, on dinner given by Ewan Ross and Royce MacGillivray at Alexandria for their co-workers in GC history (portrait) * notice of “ceilidh” to be held 31 July at Nor’Westers Museum, Williamstown, by Ewan Ross and Royce MacGillivray for followers of GC history, GN 27 July 1977 * Ewan Ross photographed holding his Lancaster book, GN 15 June 1983 * personal knowledge * Martintown boy Ewan Ross wins livestock judging competition, Standard Freeholder 1 July 1938 * Tpr Ewan Ross of the Canadian Armoured Corps visits Ross-shire, Scotland, in search of information about his ancestors, GN 16 Oct. 1942 * Cpl Ewan Ross prefers Loch Garry to Mt Vesuvius, GN 23 June 1944 * returns from overseas, GN 1 March 1946 * funeral of Esther Ross, GN 19 Dec. 2006 p. B8; death notice, Western Alumni Gazette [U of Western Ont.], n.d.