High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The son of a carpenter, Rose was born in Kendall County, Texas; his father moved the family to Menardville (now Menard) when Rose was ten. He began working as an apprentice in the office of the Menardville Monitor at 14. His family later moved to Ballinger where Rose worked on the local paper, but in 1891 he returned to work on the Menardville Record. He taught himself photography using a small box camera and printing supplies that he had earned by selling subscriptions to a popular family weekly. In 1892, he began working as an itinerant printer and photographer in Sonora, Menardville, Eagle Pass, Del Rio and other small towns in west, central, and north Texas. He supplemented standard portrait work with news photography of events such as the Menardville flood in June, 1899, and the 1902 land rush in Junction.