Ross was a hard-working Idaho artisan of great integrity. Moving from lumberjack to skilled laborer, he did heavy physical work by day to support his family. In the evenings, his callused hands patiently carved intricate instruments. As a maker of stringed instruments or luthier (the root of this word is the French word luth or lute in English), Arthur was self-taught. He never had an opportunity to serve an apprenticeship and gleaned what he knew from books.

In his “spare time” over the years, Ross built three houses for his family, put new foundations under two more, and built three houses for his brothers. Even in the Northwest, rich in unusual personalities, his is a unique story. Arthur Christopher Ross died in 1977, and only a few people remember him. When I encountered his story in a surprising coincidence, I determined that he should be part of the recorded heritage of Latah County.

When I purchased my house at 314 South Polk Street in Moscow in 1999, I learned that a violinmaker named Ross had been one of its former owners. In 2001, I began a search for a vertical viola, a somewhat rare instrument that would be easier for me, a ‘cellist, to play than a standard viola that is held under the chin. After I had found my ideal instrument at the Hammond Ashley shop in Seattle, I learned that Arthur Christopher Ross had made the viola in 1968 in my very own house in Moscow. I took the viola home, held it aloft, and said, “Arthur, I’ve brought it home.”

Arthur was born in 1904 in Okanogan, Washington, the oldest of five brothers. There were Paul, Glen, LeRoy, and Wesley, and two sisters, Faith and Evelyn. His father was a lumberjack, and his mother grew up on a farm near Moscow, Idaho. When Arthur was still an infant, his family moved to Troy, Idaho, where he and his siblings grew up and graduated from high school. After high school, in the 1920s, Art followed his father into the woods. He became a lumberjack, going back and forth for work between Idaho and Washington, where his mother and brothers Paul and Wesley lived after the death of their father. Sometimes, shortage of funds made it expedient to travel by hopping freight cars.

But Arthur’s heart was with music. Including another aspect of wood besides felling trees, he was interested in building and playing stringed instruments. He first taught himself to play the violin, possibly consulting occasionally with a local musician. While he was living in the Clearwater/Snohomish, Washington area, he became even more interested in the ‘cello and walked seven miles each way to Everett, Washington (carrying his ‘cello) for lessons with Marian Little. Arthur also played in the Everett Symphony, which later became the Seattle Symphony. And he continued his earlier experiments with making violins and ‘cellos. His principal ambition was to become a professional ‘cellist, ‘cello teacher, and conductor. When he was about 28, he began studies at the Cornish School of the Performing Arts (now the Cornish College of the Arts) in Seattle. While he was there, he pursued his interest in violinmaking through books in the Seattle Public Library. Occasionally, he would visit violin shops to observe the craftsmen at work.

But this was about 1932, in the shadow of the Great Depression, a bad time to start college. Art went back home to Troy and went to work with building contractors, specializing in woodworking and concrete finishing. He also outfitted his own workshop with luthier’s tools, some of which he made himself, and continued making instruments. At one point, he went to Nampa, Idaho, to attend Northwest Nazarene College, but shortage of funds again cut short his education. Back in northern Idaho, in 1937, when he was 33, he married Chrystine DeWitt, who had grown up on a farm near Moscow in the Robinson Park area.

Arthur built the couple’s first home on Flannigan Crick (nobody seems to call it “creek!”) in the Moscow area, near Viola. This house is still stoutly standing – not surprising considering Art’s building skills. While Art and Chrystine were living in this house, their son Wilfred and daughter Vernice were born. In 1950, when the children were in elementary school, the family moved “into town” to a little house Art built on Morton Street in Moscow. In 1955, Art built the larger “house on the hill” off Public Avenue.

The family’s next house was at 216 East A Street, a Victorian-style house that Art equipped with a new concrete foundation. His shop was in one of the bedrooms. During these years, Wilfred sang in choirs, and Vernice studied violin (on instruments made by her father) with LeRoy Bauer, at that time, professor of violin at the University of Idaho. Wilfred and Vernice graduated from Moscow High School. In 1967, Chrystine and Arthur moved to the house at 314 South Polk Street, originally built in 1896. Art, then age 63, poured a new concrete foundation under the house, digging out the basement by hand, according to Vernice. With this improvement, Art moved his workshop from a small attic room to the spacious new basement.         Continued...