Edmund G. Ross: Sandusky Student, U.S. Senator

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Edmund G. Ross is best remembered as the Senator who cast the deciding vote against the conviction of President Andrew Johnson during his impeachment trial in 1868. He is also one of the Senators about whom former President John F. Kennedy wrote, in his best selling book, Profiles in Courage.

Edmund G. Ross was born in Ashland, Ohio in 1826. When he was 11 years old, he apprenticed as a printer at the Commercial Advertiser, an early newspaper in Huron, Ohio. By 1841, he had moved to Sandusky, where he worked at the Sandusky Mirror, a newspaper owned by his brother Sylvester Ross. He was a longtime opponent of slavery, and served in the 11th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry during the Civil War. He served as U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1866 to 1871.

Hewson Peeke included in his book The Centennial History of Erie County, Ohio (Cleveland Press Co., 1925) a letter from C. M. Eldis, which listed the names of the directors, instructors, and students in the class of Sandusky High School for the academic year 1845-1846. Edmund G. Ross was one of the 1846 graduating students, along with Richard Rush Sloane, later a Mayor of Sandusky, who was known as Rush Sloane in his adult life. Most likely the students who graduated in 1846 attended classes at the former Academy Building in Sandusky, which was located next to Emmanuel Church.

A program from an Exhibition by Sandusky school students in February of 1846 lists the names of both Edmund Ross and Richard Rush Sloane. Edmund’s oration was on the topic of Capital Punishment, and young Sloane’s topic was The Nineteenth Century.

Each of these young men went on to make history, Edmund Ross on a national level, and Richard Rush Sloane in the community of Sandusky. Rush Sloane was known as an ardent abolitionist. His paper on “The Underground Railroad of Sandusky” appeared in the July 1888 issue of the Firelands Pioneer.

Many students who graduated from Sandusky High School went on to make important contributions to our community, state and country. It shows us that early Sandusky leaders placed a great value on education.