Sherry Ross (pioneer)

{{Infobox person

| name = Sherry Ross

| image =

| image_size =

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1824|02|11}}{{cite web | title = Ross, Sherry | work = Early Oregonian Search | publisher = Oregon State Archives | url = https://secure.sos.state.or.us/prs/profile.do?ancRecordNumber=91439 | accessdate = January 15, 2015}}

| birth_place = Wayne County, Indiana

| death_date = {{death date and age|1867|01|04|1824|02|11}}

| death_place = Santa Clara, California

| occupation = Farmer, merchant

| known_for = Ross Island
Ross Island Bridge

| spouse = Rebecca Deardorff

}}

Sherry Ross (February 11, 1824{{dash}}January 4, 1867) was an Oregon pioneer and the namesake of Ross Island and Ross Island Bridge in Portland, Oregon.

Ross arrived in the Oregon Country in 1845, part of a train of 200 wagons that branched off of the Oregon Trail via the Meek Cutoff.{{cite web | last = Flora | first =Stephenie | title = Emigrants to Oregon In 1845 | work =Oregon Pioneers | publisher = Stephenie Flora | url = http://www.oregonpioneers.com/1845.htm | accessdate = January 15, 2015}}Ross was counted among the immigrants of 1845 by Hubert Howe Bancroft, see footnote 30, {{cite book | last =Bancroft | first =Hubert Howe | title =History of Oregon | publisher =The History Company | volume =I | date =1890 | location =San Francisco | pages =526 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=eas-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA526}} Ross filed a provisional land claim in 1846 on a parcel of roughly 400 acres surrounded by the Willamette River, a location later known as Ross Island.{{cite web | title = Vol 4 pg 047; Ross, Sherry | work = Oregon Historical Records Index | publisher = Oregon State Archives | url = https://genealogy.state.or.us/detail.php?id=61459 | accessdate = January 15, 2015}}

In 1851 Ross married Rebecca Deardorff, an 1850 immigrant to the Oregon Territory.{{cite web | last = Flora | first =Stephenie | title = Emigrants to Oregon In 1850 | work =Oregon Pioneers | publisher = Stephenie Flora | url = http://www.oregonpioneers.com/1850.htm | accessdate = January 15, 2015}}In 1938, an oral history project sponsored by the Works Progress Administration recorded a conversation with Cyrus B. Woodworth, grandson of the Rosses. He believed the marriage occurred because Deardorff wanted to own an island and Ross already had the claim. See {{cite web | last = Wrenn | first = Sara B. | title = Cyrus B. Woodworth | work =Oregon Folklore Studies | publisher =Federal Writers' Project, Works Progress Administration | date =December 30, 1938 | url = http://lcweb2.loc.gov/wpa/29090209.html | accessdate = January 15, 2015}}

Ross operated a dairy farm on Ross IslandSee Tyler Woodward in {{cite web | last =Lockley | first =Fred | title = History of the Columbia River Valley from the Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III | publisher =S. J. Clarke | date =1928 | pages = 326–328 | url = http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/multnomah/bios/woodward1073gbs.txt | accessdate = January 15, 2015}} and was listed as a livery stable owner at 165 First Street in early Portland.{{cite book | last =Scott | first =Harvey Whitefield | title = History of Portland, Oregon: With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Prominent Citizens and Pioneers | publisher =D. Mason and Co. | date =1890 | location =Portland | pages =[https://archive.org/details/historyportland00scotgoog/page/n140 148] | url = https://archive.org/details/historyportland00scotgoog}}