Letitia Dowdell Ross
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1866
Chambers County, Alabama, U.S.
- Elizabeth Thomas Dowdell (mother)
Letitia Dowdell Ross | |
|---|---|
.png) Ross circa 1920 | |
| President, Alabama Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy | |
| President, Alabama Federation of Women's Clubs | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Letitia Roane Dowdell 1866 Chambers County, Alabama, U.S. |
| Died | 1952 |
| Spouse | Bennett Battle Ross II |
| Parent |
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| Relatives |
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| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | educator; non-profit executive |
| Known for | Ross Hall at Auburn University |
Letitia Dowdell Ross (1866–1952) was an American educator who was identified with religious, educational, philanthropic and patriotic causes. She was in close touch with the large scientific movements of the time.[1] Ross served as the president of the Alabama Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC),[2] and president of the Alabama Federation of Women's Clubs (AFWC).[3]
Letitia Roane Dowdell was born in Chambers County, Alabama,[3] in 1866.[4] She was the daughter of the Col. William Crawford Dowdell, of Auburn, Alabama. Her mother was Elizabeth Thomas Dowdell, a woman prominent and influential in the Woman's Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South and for thirty years president of the society of Alabama.[2] Letitia's grandparents were Lewis and Elizabeth (Farley) Dowdell, of East Georgia, and William Callahan and Catherine (Dowdell) Thomas.[5] Letitia was also a niece of Colonel James F. Dowdell, who commanded the Thirty-seventh Regiment, Confederate States of America, and for several years before the civil war was a member of the U.S. Congress from the East Alabama district. She was also a first cousin of James R. Dowdell, Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, and of William J. Samford, Governor of Alabama.[2]
During the civil war, Col. W. C. Dowdell served under General James Holt Clanton, while Mrs. Dowdell was active in patriotic and relief work, caring for sick and wounded soldiers in her own home for months at a time.[1]
Ross graduated from Lucy Cobb Institute (Athens, Georgia). She also pursued courses at the University of Georgia and Alabama Polytechnic Institute (Auburn, 1890–91), and still later at the University of Berlin (1901).[3][1][5]
