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Note: N1842 Ann Grahame McPherson Ross
Mrs. Ann Grahame McPherson Ross was born in Frederick, May 17, 1827. She was the daughter of Colonel John McPherson, Jr., whose wife, Frances Russell Johnson, was the daughter of Governor Thomas Johnson's eldest child, Thomas Jennings Johnson.
Ann married Worthington Ross, son of William Ross, a prominent Frederick attorney, on January 22, 1850. Worthington became an attorney as well; however he died at the age of 35 in 1854. Ann spent the next 42 years actively working in religious, patriotic and charitable activities in the city of Frederick.
Ross was a devout member of the All Saints Episcopal Church, a Charter member of the Frederick Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and one of the oldest members of the King's Daughters. She was the elected President of the Orphan House of All Saints Church from 1864-1894.
She founded and donated the Ross house on Record Street as a home for aged women in 1892. She subsequently set up an endowment for the home, helped establish a corporation for it, and encouraged others in the community to make donations.
As a direct descendant of Thomas Johnson and John McPherson, Ann was heir to the Johnson manuscript collection, the Lafayette letters, as well as a family portrait of the Johnson family painted by Charles Wilson Peale in 1772. Ross felt strongly that these materials should always remain in Frederick, and she was also aware of the pending establishment of a library in Frederick that was provided for in the will of Mrs. C. Burr Artz.
In 1896 Ross made a provision in her will to have the Johnson/McPherson family gifts deposited into the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore until Frederick had its own library. The manuscripts and painting were deposited into the new C. Burr Artz Library in 1937.
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