SALEM, Ohio — An advocate and pillar of his community, Drew Manko Ross spent most of his life spreading joy through agriculture.
“That’s kind of what Drew was when it came to things in this town. In this county, he stepped up all the time,” said Clay Kilgore, executive director of Washington County Historical Society.
Ross, 30, died on Sept 17, from a sudden illness on his farm, Ross Farms, in Eighty-Four, Pennsylvania.
Ross was the sixth-generation owner of Ross Farms, a century farm that raises heritage breed sheep and other livestock. He was also an avid volunteer, helping put on a number of Washington County events, including the annual Running of the Wools event, where sponsored sheep race down Main Street in downtown Washington, Pennsylvania.
Although Ross is gone, family members and friends continue to remember him for his advocacy.
“Drew’s whole philosophy was creating something that would build for the next generation, and that’s really what he advocated for,” said Riley Carter, Ross’s longtime girlfriend.
An advocate of agriculture
From a young age, Ross was drawn to agriculture, so much so that the farm was sometimes a higher priority than school.
“He missed over 100 days of school because he would go and work on the farm, so that when he graduated, he could then take it over and start to transition it from his grandparents to himself,” Carter said.
After he graduated from Washington High School in 2013, Ross started helping out on the farm, taking care of the livestock, including sheep, goats, donkeys, chickens and miniature ponies. The farm’s primary business at the time was selling wool products like yarn, socks, hats and mittens.
Ross fully took over the farm in 2018, but he didn’t want to stop there; he wanted to bring the farm to the community. So, in 2019, he started Ross Farm Fresh, which sells lamb and goat meat, including to local restaurants and other businesses.
Carter first met Ross in fall 2022 when he was working at Farmers and Friends Marketplace, a store he opened in 2022 that sold local farm products. Carter had just graduated from high school earlier that year, and Ross was looking for someone to man the store during the Washington County Historical Society’s Ghost tours.
“What drew me to Drew the most was it was like we were old friends. It just felt like we had known each other for so long,” Carter said. “There was never a time where the conversation was dull or there was nothing left to talk about.”
When they first met, Carter told Ross about her sister’s plans to establish a business called Hug a Highland. Days later, Ross gave Carter’s sister one of the Highland cows he was planning on getting rid of and asked Carter out.
Together, the two sold Ross Farms products at farmers’ markets in western Pennsylvania, including at Squirell Hill, Lawrenceville and Bethel Park.
Ross was also involved in local agriculture organizations, including the Washington County Farm Bureau, where he served on the Board of Directors and was the chair of the Young Farmers and Ranchers, in addition to supporting the 4-H Market Sale at the Washington County Fair.
In 2023, he won the Northrop Occupational Excellence Award from the Washington County Community Foundation for his work supporting young farmers, eating local and promoting farm-fresh food.
He was also the district scout executive for Washington and Greene counties in the Laurel Highlands District of Scouting America, following his career as a lifelong Boy Scout that spanned from beginning as a Tiger Cub all the way through earning his Eagle Scout ranking.
Helping the community
Alongside advocating for agriculture, Ross supported his community by volunteering for numerous community events hosted by the Washington County Historical Society.
“Anytime there was something in this community, he would step up and try to help with it,” Kilgore said. “He was an incredible person for his age; that type of community involvement and the impact that he made, it’s just amazing.”
Kilgore first met Ross when he was a kid, but got closer to him as they volunteered together at historical society events, like the Whiskey Rebellion Festival, Light Up Night and the Washington County Christmas Parade. Ross was always willing to lend a hand.
“At the Christmas parade, it’s zero degrees outside, and everybody takes off, and Drew is out there at 11 o’clock at night, helping me clean stuff up,” Kilgore said. “He didn’t have to. It wasn’t something that was part of what he was doing. But he was out there helping me do it.”
Volunteering is what led to Ross’s collaboration with the historical society to put on its annual Running of the Wools event. In 2021, Sarah Collier, executive director of the National Road Heritage Corridor, told Kilgore that she wanted to see sheep run down Main Street.
Shortly after that, Kilgore came up with the name “Running of the Wools,” inspired by “Running of the Bulls,” and Ross was the first person they thought of. According to Kilgore, Ross immediately agreed to supply the sheep for the races.
Through these community events, Ross often found a way to promote Washington County’s agricultural community. Kilgore remembers Ross’s passion for agriculture coming through at one of the Running of the Wools sheep-sponsor events held at Ross Farms.
“He was talking to this group of maybe 30 people, and he was talking about the farm, and there wasn’t one person that wasn’t just enthralled by what he was saying,” Kilgore said. “He just had a knack for that, of being able to draw people in(to) whatever he was talking about, whether he was helping with our ghost tours and telling stories. But especially when he was talking about farming and about his farm, Ross Farms. There was such a passion and a love for it that he could make you love it, and you didn’t even know it.”
Kligore says that day is how he chooses to remember Ross: smiling, while talking about his love for farming and his community.
Ross was in the process of rebranding the Washington County Historical Society’s Frontier Museum and planning new events before his passing; Ross loved history, according to Carter. Kilgore and the Washington County Historical Society hope to carry on those efforts “in his honor.”
Funeral services were held on Sept. 23, which included a tractor procession to honor one of his favorite activities: the Lone Pine Fire Company’s Tractor Poker Run.
“Some people are born with an idea that they want to leave a place better than when they came into it. And that was true,” Kilgore said. “It wasn’t just for him; he wasn’t (volunteering and helping out) so he could be praised. In fact, he often was behind the scenes and didn’t promote himself. He wanted to make the community better, and he wanted it to be better for the next generation and the generation after that.”
(Liz Partsch can be reached at epartsch@farmanddairy.com or 330-337-3419.
