Michael Ross, Founder of Watsontown, and His Burial Grounds The Burial Grounds became Ross Park, where The Court House was built in 1893
“His origin is veiled in obscurity, the name has been considered Scottish, but his mother was certainly German or Dutch, and came here with her only son, died, and was buried within our city limit,” the Grit said in March 20, 1892.
The name Laurence Ross appeared on a contract for work being done on a house in Muncy. Wallis, a land king [and also a traitor, working with Benedict Arnold during the Revolution] required much surveying, for the large tracts of land he acquired.
In Meginness' History of Lycoming County, he states Who Laurence Ross was is not known, but it is possible that he was the father of Michael Ross, afterwards the founder of Williamsport.
According to the Taber Museum, "Michael Ross was living in Philadelphia 1772 when he signed an indenture to be apprenticed to Samuel Wallis in north-central Pennsylvania, thereafter serving him for a period of seven years as a surveyor. At the conclusion of this indenture, Samuel Wallis presented Michael Ross with 100 acres of land, in what is now the eastern part of Williamsport."
By the age of 20, Michael Ross was a professional surveyor and Wallis had given him 100 acres of land. Meginness wrote that Michael Ross went on to acquire “the tract of 280 acres from William Winter, on which the town (Williamsport) was afterwards laid out, Ross found it necessary to locate here.”
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EARLY WILLIAMSPORT BURIAL GROUNDS
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In 1776 Amariah Sutton deeded 287.5 acres for a public burying place "forever to the trustees of the Lycoming congregation", in what is now the Newberry section of the Williamsport. A school house and meeting house for the “public worship of God by this majority of the Protestant people of the said congregation thereon forever” were also to be built on the land. According to Meginnes, this was the oldest burying ground in the county that had been set apart specifically for that purpose.
“It was in this graveyard that the killed in the massacre of June 10, 1778, which occurred within a few hundred yards of the spot, were buried. And here also the bodies of the men killed by the Indians in the early autumn of 1778, while cutting grass on the flat near the present trotting ground, were buried." - Meginness
Eventually it was decided that the Sutton graveyard was too far west of the center of the city. In 1796, Michael Ross chose an area in Williamsport for his family cemetery, the area where Old City Hall sits today. Other families were interred there as well, and by 1850, the cemetery was full. Still, bodies continued to be buried there haphazardly through 1856.
Williamsport Cemetery, Washington Boulevard.
On July 1, 1867, the city passed an ordinance ordering all of the bodies, including the Ross family, be dug up and moved to Williamsport Cemetery on Washington Boulevard.
The former Cemetery, at what is now 454 Pine Street, was renamed Ross Park.
Mark Twain visited Williamsport in 1869. In 1870 he published "A Curious Dream", which was about the deplorable condition of a cemetery. First published in Buffalo NY, Twain later gave permission to the Williamsport paper to publish it as if it were referring to Ross Park. Some believe the story was written about Ross Park, but it's more likely that Williamsport was merely another example of a widespread problem with neglect in old burial grounds.
For another example, see Danville's Memorial Park - where the stones were simply laid flat and the park was built on top of the graves.
Read more about Mark Twain's visit here:
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Hot Air Balloon At Ross Park
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Sometime between 1867, when the cemetery was renamed Ross Park, and 1893, when City Hall was built there, a hot air balloon landed in the park.
Hot Air Balloon at Ross Park
Shearers Ascension from Williamsport in August 1874 was from Market Square, not Ross Park.
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In 1877, an "old citizen" wrote a letter to the editor, objecting to the idea of a school being constructed at Ross Park.
A Fair was held in Ross Park beginning July 1 1884.
July 1885, Williamsport Sunday Grit reported
"Ross park is a misnomer, nor is it ever likely to be used as a park."
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Building The Police Department
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1887 the city built a brick building on the southwest corner of the site for police headquarters and a “lock-up”. During the excavation for the building, five unknown skeletons were discovered.
" In excavating in Ross Park, Williamsport, for the foundation of new police department building, workmen came upon five human skeletons, at a depth of three feet in the ground. One was that of a female, and from the skull depended a heavy growth of light blonde hair, eighteen inches in length, and as fresh and healthy looking as if it were growing on a living head. the interior one of the skulls were copper cents, one bearing the date 1813, and of the issue of 1820. It is supposed the old coins had been used to close the eyes of the person when he died, had been buried with the body, and in time had falled through the eye cavities into the skull.
It is not known to whom the remains belong, or when they were buried in the park"
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Building City Hall
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In 1881, by ordinance, Ross Park Commission was created and in 1892, the Ross Park Commissioners were directed to procure plans for a City Hall.
In 1893, Williamsport architect Eber Culver designed the new City Hall, which was erected in Ross Park. The building was dedicated in 1894.
That same year, the City gave permission to the Soldiers and Sailors Monument Association to erect their monument in front of City Hall in Ross Park, and $307.50 was appropriated from the general fund for the purpose of a monument and payment of bills for removing the dead from Ross Park to Grand View Cemetery.
Soldiers Monument at Wildwood
Grand View Cemetery is now a part of East Wildwood Cemetery. According to Townsend Van Glahn, the Civil War soldiers were brought from Ross Park and buried in a common grave, where a monument was then erected
"It appears that while electricity was introduced into the court house in 1885, the clock was still illuminated by gas in 1905. We are indebted to the Gazette & Bulletin of July 13, 1905 for the following tid-bit:
WHAT’S THE TIME?
WHY THIS EGYPTIAN DARKNESS IN THE REGION OF
THE COURT HOUSE CLOCK FOR TWO WHOLE NIGHTS?
The gas is out. Some one should start up the light plant again, for a great many people depend upon the Court House clock for the time of night as they pass by . . .”
And then in the July 14th issue of the same newspaper, we are glad to learn:
“The illuminant in the Court House clock was doing duty again last night at the old stand and much to the delight of every one.”
The fountain was reactivated in 1893, and I can recall it as a boy about 1907. When it was finally removed I cannot discover. In 1911, there were ornamental lamp posts at the four corners of the court house lawn. It seems to me that I can remember seeing them some years ago. The Gazette & Bulletin of that period seems to have a particular fondness for delectable little items which aroused their readers interest and which we enjoy today for the information given that otherwise might have been lost. In the December 12, 1905 issue, page 7, appeared this morsel:
WEATHER VANE ON A SLANT
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS MAY MAKE REPAIRS TO
COURT HOUSE TOWER.
“The wooden pedestal extending into the air from the dome of the Court House tower, and which furnishes a base for the big weather vane of the figure of Justice is decidedly out of plumb. Its present slant is due to the strong wind that prevailed last Sunday. This has been called to the attention of the County Commissioners [no doubt by an enterprising reporter, a predecessor of Paul Bussom] and they may today order the necessary repairs to the tower. If proper attention is not given at once the metal lady may tumble to the sidewalk in front of the temple of Justice.
“It was over thirty years ago that the late Morris G. Repasz gave the figure of Justice a covering of gold leaf at his shop on Court Street, and then stood on the top of the tower suspended by a trunk strap around his waist, and gilded the large gold ball under the figure.”
Presumably this is the same figure of Justice which still turns whimsically today with every change in the direction of the wind. This continual change of direction would seem to make her a somewhat fickle lady!" - https://www.lycolaw.org/about/sketches/05
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