MSM 654 Dr. T. E. Ross, Jr. - In His Father's Footsteps

Dr. T.E. Ross came to Hattiesburg in 1892 and set up an office on Main Street. In this 1975 oral history interview, his son, Dr. T.E. Ross, Junior, recalls his father's decision to move their family from Neshoba county. Before vaccines and antibiotics, the only way to stop infectious diseases was through quarantine. Dr. Ross recounts how his father was blocked from returning home during a yellow fever outbreak. Dr. Ross graduated from Tulane Medical School in 1918. He remembers the circumstances that led him to set up his practice in Hattiesburg like his father. PODCAST EXTRA:  W.S.F. Tatum was a successful Hattiesburg timber magnate who served as mayor in the 1920s and 30s.  Dr. Ross describes the soft-spoken businessman as a frugal, yet good and generous man, who disliked ostentatious displays of wealth.