After graduating, he went on to read law under the tutelage of Samuel Beardsley in Utica, New York, and later with Timothy Jenkins, in Oneida County.

[3] In February 1852 he helped organize a new Jefferson and Dodge County agricultural society, and became a vice-president for Beaver Dam.

;[4] in October, the new Society would hold their first annual county fair, and Rose would serve as a judge in the category of Fruits.

[5] He was elected as town chairman (equivalent to mayor) of Beaver Dam in April 1852, which made him ex officio a member of the county board of supervisors.

[11][12][13] When the Legislature chartered Wayland University in January 1855 and Judson Female Seminary in March, Rose was made a trustee of both institutions.

[14][15] The legislature also added him as a new trustee of the Wisconsin Baptist Educational Society, which was permitted to pass part or all of its assets over to Wayland.

His paternal grandfather, Timothy Rose, was a private in the Connecticut militia during the American Revolutionary War and was killed in the Wyoming Massacre.