Jacob Ross, deceased, formerly a resident of Santa Ana, was literally the first pioneer in this place, coining here when the land was owned by the Spaniards, and buying some 2,500 acres of the Santa Ana de Santiago rancho. He also bought other lands near where the city of Santa Ana now stands, and improved a farm one mile west of the city, where Mrs. Ross now lives. He crossed the plains to this coast with wagons in 1865, and many were the hardships he endured. In the early days here his crops had to be guarded both day and night against the roving herds of horses, cattle and sheep belonging to the Spaniards. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1823.
At an early age he went to Indiana, where he married Miss Elizabeth Thompson and resided sixteen years; then he moved into Illinois, where he was a miller until 1865, when he came to California, being on the road about four months. He rented land and farmed some three years in Monterey County, and in 1878 came to Santa Ana. The four children whom he brought up are the following: Jacob, now one of the Supervisors of Orange County; Samuel and Josiah, prosperous farmers; and Christiana, wife of Samuel T. McNeil, of Santa Ana. Mr. Ross died here in 1870, aged fifty-seven years, after having been for a long time a member of the United Brethren Church, and highly respected by all who knew him.