Rev. Enoch Elijah Ross, Sr.

Enoch Elijah Ross was born in Panola County, TX where he was raised with his parents and siblings. He was a talented singer and musician who played the piano, guitar, drums, and possibly the trumpet. Before becoming a very anointed minister, Enoch was known for his blues playing at juke joints and for bootlegging. One story has him in a heated Turf-war with rival bootlegger, Cliff Clemons, whose daughter, Lois would later become the wife of Enoch's son Horace, as recalled by Horace & Lois's son Darryl.

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Enoch worked as a "saw man" at the Frost-Johnson Lumber Company in Nacogdoches, TX when he first married Adell. Their first child Corene was born there, and possibly their next three kids. Corene recalled the whistling of the train carrying lumber thorough the woods. She also recalled living in a small wooden cabin with a pot-belly stove for cooking and warmth. Before marrying Enoch, Adell was one of two women pregnant by him. Willie Ross is Enoch's first child, born shortly before Corene.

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It is uncertain if the Ross family was living in the Frost-Johnson encampment when they were chased from East Texas to Chisholm. What is clear is that at some point Enoch left his blues-playing life and became a very strong preacher and pastor known for his rousing sermons. In one story, Papa, as his children and grandchildren call him, was preaching under the brush arbor on the Chisholm farm where they lived for more than 10 years. Some black farmers there came to the service to reportedly kill Papa because they felt their wives were spending too much time in church. Enoch and Adell's daughter Faye told a popular family story of one man's hand withering and dropping a gun he had pointed at Papa as the saints prayed while their pastor strummed his guitar and sang an impromptu song, "I'm free from sin and licks!"

According to his son James, Papa was just as spirited in Dallas where he moved his family, telling a gas station attendant, "The boy's in the back seat!" before driving off with James watching proudly from the rear. James told of Papa's arrest in Dallas for almost accidently running his car into a white girl crossing Singleton, the dividing line between segregated Dallas in the 1940s. James said Papa would surely have been killed had it not been for a white minister who recognized him in the jail and called for his Christian brother's release.

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Papa went from farmer to newspaper delivery crew leader while working for the Dallas Morning News. He died of a heart inflammation called pancarditis at the young age of 49 in 1949, sitting in his favorite chair in the home he owned at 3822 Toronto St. in Dallas. As of 2024, a vacant lot sits in the place where Papa once lived as a homeowner, continuing pastor, and the revered head of household with his children and wife of 27 years. He is buried at Lincoln Memorial Park in Dallas. Adell moved to Los Angeles in the 1950s with seven of their children. She remained unmarried for 29 years.

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Tom and Mary Ann (Smiley) Ross -- Enoch's parents
Tom was the mulatto son of Dr. Griff Ross. He lived with his wife Mary Ann and their seven children in Panola County in the East Texas countryside where they lived as farmers. Tom was born in May 1875 and died in 1952. Mary Ann was born March 22, 1866 and died on April 12, 1912.

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Jack and Adeline (Schuyler) Smiley -- Mary Ann's parents

Jack Smiley was born in 1835 in Tennessee, while Adeline was born in 1829 in Arkansas. The couple raised their nine children in Panola County, TX and died in 1878 and 1906, respectively.

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Dr. Griff Ross and Mary Ross -- Tom's parents

Dr. Griff Ross was the town doctor in Mt. Enterprise, TX. He was a white man whose father or uncle possibly held Mary Ross in slavery in East Texas. Griff is said to have treated Mary as a "concubine" who bore him five children while he lived with his white wife and children. Census records show that Mary possibly had some of Griff's children while she was married to a mulatto man named Thomas Jefferson Ross. Census records also show Griff's and Mary's two daughters, Kizziah and Lucretia, moving from their mom's home to live with Griff or his uncle. Their ethnicity changed from black to white. It is said that Mary may have come from Africa but records have not been found yet to confirm this.

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