Matilda H. Ross, GW #99

Matilda was born June of 1889 in or near Homestead, Pennsylvania to Hugh and Elizabeth (Boyd) Ross.  Hugh had emigrated from Scotland just ten years before Matilda was born.  Matilda and her two older siblings were baptized at the First Presbyterian Church of Homestead, PA soon after Matilda was born.  By 1900 the family had moved to Cleveland, Ohio where Hugh was a bridge builder.  The family continued to live there in 1910.  By then, Hugh was an agent for a steam ship company.  By 1913 Matilda joined the Gospel Worker Society; she is listed in the Cleveland city directory as living at 76 Public Square, one of the addresses for the Gospel Worker Society.  Three years later her father died, followed by her mother in 1919.  There was no going home for Matilda, but she did not stay with the Gospel Worker Society.  She joined Annie Spellman’s Missionary Workers.  In 1920 she is listed with Annie Spellman and others in Detroit, where they are listed as missionaries with an interdenominational mission.  Matilda is listed in the 1919 Detroit city directory at the same address that is given in the 1920 census.  However, the 1920 Detroit city directory gives a different address for Matilda and the others.  They must have moved after the census was taken and before the directory was made.  In 1930 Matilda is living in Port Huro, Michigan, being listed in the city directory as a missionary.  However, none of the missionaries with whom she lived in 1920 are listed in this directory.  Did she join a different society?  In 1940 a Matilda Ross, age 50, born in Pennsylvania with 8 years of schooling is listed as an inmate at Ypsilante State Hospital for the Insane.  In 1950 a Matilda Ross, age 60, born in Pennsylvania, never married, is an inmate at Newberry State Hospital Mental Institute in Portland, Michigan.  I believe these entries are the same Matilda Ross that was a Gospel Worker.  There is a Matilda Ross, born 1889 and died 1954 that is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit, Michigan.  There is a strong possibility that this is the former Gospel Worker.