ly identified with the war of
American Independence. Her mother's uncle, Jacob Root, held a captain's
commission in the Continental army, and it is related of her great
grandmother that she served voluntarily as a moulder in an establishment
where bullets were manufactured to be used in the cause of freedom.

Her mother's name was Mary Root, a native of Chester County,
Pennsylvania. Her father was William Ross, who emigrated early in life
from the county of Derry, Ireland. There may have been nothing in her
early manifestations of character to foreshow the noble womanhood into
which she grew. There remains, at any rate, a small record of her
earliest years. The wonderful powers which she developed in mature
womanhood possess a greater interest for those who know her chiefly in
connection with the labors which gave her so just a claim to the title
of "The Soldier's Friend."

Endowed by nature with great vigor of mind and uncommon activity and
energy, of striking and commanding personal appearance and pleasing
address, she had been, before the war, remarkably successful in the
prosecution of those works of charity and benevolence which made her
life a blessing to mankind. Well-known to the public-spirited and humane
of her native city, her claims to attention were fully recognized, and
her appeals in behalf of the needy and suffering were never allowed to
pass unheeded.

"I have little hope of success," she said once to her companion, in
going upon an errand of mercy: "yet we may get one hundred dollars. The
lady we are about to visit is not liberal, though wealthy. Let us pray
that her heart may be opened to us. Many of my most earnest prayers have
been made while hurrying along the street on such errands as this." The
lady gave her three hundred dollars.

On one occasion she was at the house of a friend, when a family was
incidentally mentioned as being in great poverty and affliction. The
father had been attacked with what is known as "black small pox," and
was quite destitute of the comforts and attentions which his situation
required, some of the members of his own family having left the house
from fear of the infection. The quick sympathies of Miss Ross readily
responded to this tale of want and neglect. "While God gives me health
and strength," she earnestly exclaimed, "no man shall thus suffer!" With
no more delay than was required to place in a basket articles of
necessity and comfort she hastened to the mise