James Hamilton Ross (1856-1932)
James Ross was born in London, Canada West (now Ontario) to John Edgar and Christina Graeme Hathern Ross. Ross was scouting a location for the Canadian Pacific Railway and established a ranch with his father and brother near Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. They are considered the first permanent residents of the community. Ross was active in negotiations to create the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. He sat in the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories (NWT), which included Yukon at that time, between 1883 and 1901. He was the Speaker from 1891 to 1894 and was a member of the Executive Council between 1895 and 1897, also serving as treasurer.1)
Ross was appointed Commissioner of the Yukon and served from March 1901 to October 1902.2) His wife and six children arrived in Dawson shortly after he did, and they settled into the newly finished Commissioner’s Residence. On a trip outside to buy furniture, his wife and youngest son were drowned when the SS Islander sank near Juneau in August 1901.3)
The duties of the Commissioner were onerous, but Ross was competent and farsighted. Convinced of a prosperous future for the territory, in 1902 he lobbied in Ottawa for a Dawson City municipal government, and elected officials at the territorial and federal levels. He was successful in getting three elected Yukon Councillors put on the six-member Council. That year, a hated royalty on mineral production was replaced by a lower export tax and Yukoners were very pleased with their political administration until news broke about the awarding of huge mining concessions in the goldfields. Ross suffered a debilitating stroke in July 1902 and was treated in Victoria and California through the fall and winter.4)
In the fall of 1902, Ross ran to be Yukon’s first Minister of Parliament in the House of Commons against Yukon’s popular territorial councillor Joseph Clarke. Ross did not visit the Yukon during the campaign, but he won with a platform of duty-dree mining machinery for one year, a wholly elected Yukon Council, reduced license fees, construction of a Yukon smelter, and aid for the Whitehorse copper mines.5) Historians Ken Coates and William Morrison have judged Ross a failure as a Yukon senator, seldom attending the Commons and unable to adequately defend Yukon’s interests. The Dawson News agreed, calling him impotent.6)
After two years Ross was appointed to the Senate representing Regina, NWT and then Regina, Saskatchewan after the creation of the province. He served as a senator until his death.7)