Max and Elsie (WHEELER) Ross of Vernon

Max Ross was born November 5, 1895 or 1896 in Girard Kansas, the youngest of three children of Thomas and Clarissa Ross.  Max was placed in an orphanage in Denver, and in 1907 was placed with a family near Armel.  In 1909 he was indentured to a loving family, Zack and Ida Errett five miles west and two south of Vernon.  He completed eighth grade and even attended Wray High School for a semester.  He was declared self-sufficient in 1914, and served in WWI, with the first Army division to enter Germany after Armistice.

A very nice family history book describes Max and Elsie's life, and is being donated to the Wray Library.  The book says that Max's WWI uniform had been donated to the Wray Museum.

Elsie was born December 22, 1904 in Lincoln County, Kansas to Pinckney Newton Wheeler and Mary Olive (TEBOW) Wheeler.  In 1916 the large family moved to Vernon, where Elsie and sister Audrey attended Prairie Ridge School - two miles away.

Elsie graduated from eighth grade in 1920, became engaged to neighbor Max Ross in 1922, and taught Pleasant Valley School thirty-five miles away in 1923. (personal note  she would have taught my father there.  mdm)

Max and Elsie married in June 1923, owned a hardware store in Vernon, and moved fifty miles northwest to Washington County, where they farmed for thirty-five years.

  Their daughter Lois Blacker wrote the family history book, which includes this Vernon grade school class -

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This page is maintained by M.D. Monk.