Of Lelia’s children, Ruth showed the most interest in owning the
cottage. A graduate of Simmons College and a biology teacher in New
Haven, Conn., she returned to the area every summer. She acquired the
cottage and property during the settlement of her father’s estate and
added a purchase in 1930 from Arthur “Sheddy” Sherrard who had bought the
King acreage. Ruth’s ownership extended to the low tide line and
included the north side of Red Cove. Sheddy gave her the right to take
fish from his weir in Red Cove. In 1946 Ruth’s brother Carl purchased
more of the adjacent property from Sheddy.
Ruth spent most of her summers at the cottage, reading and enjoying
nature, taking morning walks in the woods. She gathered stones from
around the bay and had a fireplace built in 1940 – the centerpiece of the
cottage. Carl did much of the maintenance work during his mother’s years
of ownership as did his son, Hubert Wilbur Ross, during Ruth’s later years.
Hubert had often stayed at Ross Cottage as a boy in the 1920s. Unable
to attend college because of the Depression, Hubert enlisted in the Marines.
During World War II he served in the Coast Guard Reserve and the Army,
retiring as a major.
Upon Hubert’s death in 2004 ownership of Ross Cottage passed to his son
Ken, a graduate of the University of Colorado and American University and
retired political scientist.
In addition to the shoe store customers it hosted during its 19th Century
life in St. Stephen, the cottage has seen a wide variety of visitors in
Pembroke including teachers, fishermen, politicians, carpenters, children,
businesspeople, shellfish harvesters, churchgoers, Native Americans, and
military officers. Lelia’s nephew Styles Bridges became governor of New
Hampshire, a U.S. senator who ran for president in the 1940 primary, and
the most influential Republican senator in the 1950s. His brother Ronald
became a prominent church official, president of Pacific College of
Religion, and Religious Adviser to the U.S. Information Agency. Lelia’s
daughter Jessie Ross married Harold Murchie who served in the Maine House
and Senate and on the Maine Supreme Court, his last years as chief justice.
