Thomas Randolph Ross was born on October 26, 1788, to a Quaker family in New Garden Township of Chester County, PA. He was the oldest child of Dr. John Ross and Catherine Randolph, a relative of John Randolph of Roanoke, VA, with whom her son would later serve in Congress. His early schooling was at a Quaker institution at West Town, and he later studied law in Philadelphia under his uncle's direction. He was admitted to the bar in 1808, and began to practice law in Chester County, but then moved West in 1809. By 1810, Ross had settled in Warren County, Ohio, and began a law practice in Lebanon.

In 1811, he married Harriet Van Horne, the daughter of a Baptist minister. They eventually had six children. He also helped start Lebanon's first bank, the Lebanon Miami Banking Company, and in 1814, was on its first board of directors.

Over the next few years, Ross gained a reputation as an able lawyer and a forceful speaker. In 1818, Ross won election to the House of Representatives from the 1st District of Ohio. He represented the 1st District for both the 16th and 17th Congresses as a Republican supporting the presidential candidacy of William H. Crawford. After the re-districting that took place in 1822 with the addition of eight Congressional districts in Ohio, Ross ran for election from the second district, which he served for the 18th Congress (1823-1825) but lost his race for reelection in 1824.

In his first term in Congress, Ross gained recognition for his adamant opposition to the Missouri Compromise. Though the measure was adopted in 1820, Ross joined the majority of Representatives from non-slaveholding states who opposed it. During his last two Congressional terms, Ross served as chairman of the Committee on Revisal and Unfinished Business.

After losing the 1824 election, Ross is said to have been deeply disappointed and for a while turned to alcohol. Several years later he eventually overcame the alcoholism and returned to practicing law in Lebanon, Ohio, regaining the respect of those around him. In 1835, he won election to the State Legislature. Ross eventually retired to his farm just outside of Lebanon. In 1866, Thomas Ross lost his eyesight from cataracts. He died on his farm near Lebanon on June 28, 1869, and was buried in Lebanon Cemetery.

Sources:
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
Warren County Biographies-the History of Warren County Ohio by Josiah Morrow, Part III, Chapter VIII. (Chicago, IL: W. H. Beers Co, 1882; reprint, Mt. Vernon, IN: Windmill Publications, 1992)

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