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Goss Family History

Our Goss family starts with Andrew Goss¹ (1840-1912) in Sweden. Andrew followed the 1849 California Gold Rush to the United States by way of Sardinia when he was about 12 years old, probably jumping ship in San Francisco around 1853-1854. Upon arrival he "Americanized" his name to "Andrew Goss" (the original name is unknown but suspected to be Anders Gustafsson).

Andrew Goss settled in Coulterville, Mariposa County, California, where he married Elizabeth Goodwin and had six sons. After his divorce from Elizabeth, he married Theresa (Ferretti) Garbarino and moved to nearby Tuolumne, Tuolumne County, California, and ultimately Stockton, San Joaquin County, California. He died in 1912.

Andrew GOSS¹ (1840-1912)

1. Andrew Goss¹ is the patriarch of the American Goss line who journeyed alone from Sweden to America and became a rifleman, saddler^{[Cen 1870]}, teamster^{[Cen 1880]}, gold miner, blacksmith^{[Cen 1910]}, and constable of Coulterville, Mariposa County, California. Andrew was born on April 8, 1840, and at about the age of 12 he followed the California Gold Rush to the United States, apparently by way of Sardinia. He is believed to have jumped ship to San Francisco in 1853 or 1854^{[Cen 1900]}. After arriving in San Francisco, Andrew made his way to Coulterville, Mariposa County, California, and settled down as a saddler, farrier, and gold miner, and "Americanized" his name to Andrew Goss (his original name is unknown but suspected to be Anders Gustafsson).

After settling in Coulterville for ten years or so, Andrew married Elizabeth Goodwin on May 3, 1868, and fathered six sons:

During the last three years of the War of the Rebellion (American Civil War), Andrew served in the Coulterville Rifleman Third Brigade. His marksmanship was a source of great personal pride which, at one time, won him a Coulterville area marksmanship award and a picture of President George Washington. Andrew is said to have treasured the picture.

It was also during this time, September 4, 1865, that Andrew was naturalized as a United States citizen. Interesting is a phrase on his naturalization papers in Mariposa that states he was "no longer a subject to the King of Sardinia." This appears to indicate that Andrew was at one time a citizen of Sardina but more probably represents a careless mistake on the part of the naturalization official.

Andrew & Elizabeth

Following his service as a rifleman, Andrew married the daughter of Scottish immigrants named Elizabeth Goodwin from Bear Gap, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. She was probably as young as 15 at the time; he, about 27. They soon had their first of six sons, Jim on May 7, 1868.

During the 1870's, four more sons were born to the Goss family: Charles A., William A., Benjamin Roland, and John Charles. On September 10, 1874, Andrew filed an application for a land claim for 133.29 acres in the southeast quarter of Coulterville. The homestead was finalized in 1883. Andrew also filed a land patent on February 15, 1876, for a tract in La Grange Township, Tuolumne County (Township 3 South, Range 14 East, Section 6), which is likely along State Highway 59 just north of the Stanislaus-Tuolumne County line.

The 1880's, however, were mixed with fortune and misfortune: John Charles died in 1882 at the age of 3, but Jesse Norman was born on November 29, 1883. Soon thereafter, about 1886, Andrew and Elizabeth's approximate 19-year marriage ended in divorce. After the divorce, Elizabeth and youngest son Jesse N. moved to Tuolumne, Tuolumne County where she was a hotel keeper.^{[Cen 1900]}

The 1890's brought more misfortune to the Goss family: sons William and Charles died, and following this, four grandchildren were born, two of whom died soon after.

Photos courtesy of Theresa's great-grandson, Stevan Stroud

Andrew & Theresa

Andrew later married Theresa (Ferretti) Garbarino, an Italian immigrant who was nearly half his age, on November 19, 1898, in Sonora, Tuolumne County. She was the widow of Angelo Garbarino who died around 1890 leaving four daughters. Her youngest daughter Rosa, who was 10 years old when Theresa remarried, eventually took the Goss name.^{[Mar 1909]}

Within a year of their marriage they lived in Big Oak Flat, Tuolumne County, where Andrew worked as a farmer and Theresa's father, Frank Ferretti, boarded with them and helped as a farm hand.^{[Cen 1900]}

Andrew's original homestead, the Goss Ranch, was 160 acres, although an unfenced mining claim runs through it leaving about 138 acres. After Andrew's and Elizabeth's divorce, they split the estate. Andrew's half eventually became his son Jim's, who later turned it over to his youngest daughter Bussie. When Bussie moved to Oakdale, she sold it to her niece Billy.

Elizabeth ended up defaulting on her taxes and the estate was bought out by a local cattle rancher, Tim Carlon. Later Carlon sold the property to the Merced Gold Mining Company from whom granddaughter, Ila Goss-Barrett bought it. Ila later sold the property to her daughter Billy so that now much of the original homestead remains in Billy's hands.

Andrew sold his home in Coulterville in 1904 after he let went delinquent on his taxes. It was at this time that he moved to the Fair Oak district of Stockton, San Joaquin County, where Andrew worked as a watchman for Union Oil.

On the evening of December 8, 1912, Andrew is recalled to have been sitting at the diner table in his home at 1701 E. Scotts Avenue in Stockton with his eldest son Jim. Andrew took out his pocket watch, placed it on the table and slumped over with a heart attack. He died the following morning at 8:00 a.m., December 9, 1912,^{[Dth 1912]} survived by his wife, Theresa; ex-wife and mother of his sons, Elizabeth; three sons, James Sr., Benjamin², and Jesse; and six grandchildren, Stella, William, Zelda, Ila, Eloise "Bussie", and Lloyd³. He was 72 years old. Andrew is buried at the Coulterville Cemetery.

Andrew is remembered to have loved music. His sons played a wide range of musical instruments which attracted the attention of many townsfolk who came to hear the Goss boys play. In addition to being a saddler, gold miner, and rifleman, Andrew was also a teamster, constable of Coulterville, an apprentice Mason, and is said to have been a director of the construction of the Yosemite-Coulterville pike, the first major road into Yosemite.

After Andrew

Theresa remarried two years later to Edwin Kendall Williams, a divorcée and native of Illinois, on December 24, 1914, in Stockton. Edwin worked as a diaryman in Lindsay, Tulare County, California, at the time. Witnesses to their marriage were Flora A. Parker and Cyril Kenyon, both of Stockton.^{[Mar 1914]}

Theresa and Edwin apparently divorced and Theresa remarried to Thomas Robert Lee, a native of Alabama, on March 6, 1919, in San Francisco.^{[Mar 1919]} They continued to live Stockton and rented a house at 520 North American Street. Thomas worked as a paper hanger for W. J. Hicox.^{[Mar 1919, Cen 1920]} By 1930 they moved about seven blocks south and bought a house at 214 South American Street. Thomas worked as a painter.^{[Cen 1930]}

Theresa Mary (Ferretti Garbarino Goss) Lee died on April 24, 1941, in Stockton, San Joaquin County, California, at the age of 78 years. She was buried in Park View Cemetery, south of Stockton in Manteca, San Joaquin County.^{[Dth 1941A, Grave]}

Thomas Robert Lee died six months later on October 19, 1941, in Stockton, at the age of 76 years. He was buried with Theresa in Park View Cemetery on October 28.^{[Dth 1941B, Grave]}

James Albert GOSS (1868-1956)

11. James "Jim" Albert Goss, (Sr.) was the first-born son of a Swedish immigrant father. He was born at the home of his maternal grandmother, Jane (McNeil Goodwin) Johnson on May 7, 1868, in Coulterville, Mariposa County, California, and was likely named for his maternal grandfather James Goodwin², who had died three years prior. He married Louise Rose Canova, a daughter of Italian immigrant merchants from Genoa, Italy, on August 1, 1891, and had six children, two of whom died in childhood:

Marriage indexes record that Jim and Louise married in Coulterville on August 1, 1891, three months before daughter Lillian was born.^{[Mar 1891]}

Jim was a teamster for a freight carrier into his 50s, but as automobiles became more prevalent he opened and operated the town's Shell gas station.^{[Cen 1900-1920, Obit 1958]}

Louise's younger brother John Canova lodged with the family in 1900.^{[Cen 1900]} John was an inseparable friend with Jim's younger brother Ben².

In the 1910 and 1920 censuses, Coulterville was recorded as "Township 2" and the name "Coulterville town" was written but then struck out as not officially recognized. By 1930 the name was included as an "unincorporated place." In 1930, the Goss family was enumerated on Stockton Street along with daughter Zelda and her husband Joseph B. Hudson. Jim worked as a mail carrier and Joe worked as a garage machinist.^{[Cen 1930]}

By 1935, the Goss and Hudson family moved to Main Street where James operated a gas station and Joe worked an equipment operator on county roads.^{[Cen 1940]}

Louise Rose (Canova) Goss died on February 26, 1939, in Coulterville, a week before her 67th birthday.

James Albert Goss died 17 years later at the age of 88 on July 10, 1956. Both James and Louise are buried at the Coulterville Cemetery.

Charles A. Goss (1871-1891)

12. Charles A. Goss was born in Coulterville, Mariposa County, California, on March 10, 1871. He grew up in Coulterville and played on the town baseball team in 1888.

Charles A. Goss died on November 23, 1891, at the age of 20. He is buried at the Coulterville Cemetery.

William A. Goss (1873-1890)

13. William "Willie" A. Goss was born April 8, 1873, in Coulterville, Mariposa County, California.

He died on April 4, 1890, four days before his 17th birthday, in Snelling, Merced County, California, following complications from a broken leg that would not heal. William is buried at the Coulterville Cemetery.

Benjamin Roland Goss² (1876-1956)

14. Benjamin Roland Goss² was a first-generation American born to Swedish and Scottish parents. He was born on July 31, 1876, in Coulterville, Mariposa County, California. Benjamin married Alice Lucretia Converse⁴ on July 21, 1898, in Coulterville, a year and a half after Ben's maternal uncle, Pete Johnson, married Alice's elder sister Ida. They had two sons:

Benjamin was the fourth of six sons born to his Swedish immigrant father, Andrew, and Pennsylvania-born mother, Elizabeth Goodwin. He may have been named after a Coulterville resident boy, Roland Benjamin Dexter^{[Cen 1880]}, who was 14 years his senior.

In his teens, two of his older brothers, William and Charles died leaving him the second oldest surviving son.

Benjamin married Alice Lucretia Converse, daughter of a mid-West pioneer and a reportedly part Native American mother, in Coulterville, on July 21, 1898. The following August, their first son, William Albert, apparently named in memory of Benjamin's older brother, was born in Coulterville. At the time, Benjamin was working as a gold miner in the area.

Sometime later, the Goss family moved to Jamestown in neighboring Tuolumne County, where, on September 19, 1912, their second son, Lloyd Andrew³, was born. About this time, Benjamin was working as an iceman according to the Great Register of Voters, 1910-1912. Soon after Lloyd's birth, Benjamin's father, Andrew, died in Stockton, San Joaquin County, and was buried in Coulterville.

By 1917 the family left Jamestown for Colusa, Colusa County. The family resided at 222 Market Street and Benjamin worked as an auto mechanic^{[Cen 1920]}.

In the early 1920's, the family temporarily settled for a year in Myrtle Point, Coos County, Oregon, where they lived in a tent prior to returning to California and settling down in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County. While in Oregon, son William worked in a theater in Coos Bay.

The Goss family moved to the eastern section of Roseland in Santa Rosa by 1924 and opened and operated the first Shell gas station in Santa Rosa on Roberts Avenue. There both Benjamin and William registered as Republicans, Benjamin a mechanic and William a clerk.

After son Lloyd married in 1937, he and his bride rented the the lower level of a home on Roberts Avenue owned by Alice's sister, Carrie (Converse) Sullivan, until they found their own house around 1938.

The Roberts Avenue home was sold when construction of Highway 101 cut through the area. Ben and Alice bought another home at 425 Florence Street, about six blocks northwest of Roberts Avenue, and paid on this place from June 1939 until October 1943. Midway, in 1940, they spent a short while in temporary lodgings at the Riverside Auto Court, 2312 Sonoma Highway.^{[Cen 1940]} Later the Goss family moved to Aston Avenue, near the Fairgrounds, for a time.

Mother, Elizabeth (Goodwin) Goss died on June 2, 1942, of congestive heart disease in Coulterville, and was buried at the Coulterville Cemetery.

In 1946 the Gosss moved to a new house at 1200 Brush Creek Road which was only partially built because the original owner had died. Benjamin and his two sons finished the house and put on the porch.

Ben and Alice celebrated their 50th anniversary in 1948. On that occasion, Ben's cousin, artist Jack Hopkins, gave them a painting that hung at Brush Creek Road until the house was sold in 1988. The painting continues to hang prominently at their grandson Gary's house.

Alice Lucretia (Converse) Goss, died on February 10, 1951, at the 1200 Brush Creek residence. They had been married for 52 years.

Five years later, Benjamin Roland Goss died at the same residence on September 17, 1956. His passing came two months after his eldest and only surviving brother Jim died. Both Ben and Alice are buried at the Chapel of the Chimes in Santa Rosa.

After Ben's death, the Brush Creek residence and a half acre of property was left to his 10-year old grandson, Gary⁴. The original house on Brush Creek was a two story building with living quarters upstairs and a garage downstairs.

John Charles Goss (1879-1882)

15. John "Johnnie" Charles Goss was born on July 5, 1879, in Coulterville, Mariposa County, California. He was likely named for his maternal uncle, John Charles Goodwin, who, at the young age of 19, died three years prior to his birth.

Johnnie died at the age of 3 on September 19, 1882, and is buried at the Coulterville Cemetery.

Jess Norman Goss (1883-1946)

16. Jess Norman Goss was born in November 29, 1883, in Jamestown, Tuolumne County. He lived there most of his life and married Hazel I. O'Neill, also of Jamestown, on September 29, 1915. They had two children:

161.	Charles Donald Goss	3 Oct 1916	28 Nov 1955	(39)
162.	Gertrude Phyllis Goss	14 Feb 1921	8 Apr 2011	(90)

Jess lived with his mother following the breakup of his parents when he was about 3 years old. In his teen years, he lived for a while as a boarder with his maternal cousins Marguerite Wagner and Carrie (Wagner) Dexter in Red Cloud (present day Greeley Hill), Mariposa County, and worked as a farm laborer.^{[Cen 1900]}

According to the 1910-1912 Great Register of Voters, Jess was a printer.

Jess and Hazel were married on September 29, 1915, at St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco, by assistant pastor J. M. Byrne. Witnesses to their marriage were Hazel's father, William P. O'Niell, of Jamestown, and Alice Sims of Chinese Camp, Tuolumne County. Jess was working as a motorman in Jamestown at the time.^{[Mar 1915]}

Jess later worked as a lime kiln engineer at Dutch-Sweeny Manufacturing Company in the nearby town of Quartz, by 1918.^{[Draft 1918, Cen 1920, 1930]}

The Goss family lived along the east side of Main Street in Jamestown^{[Cen 1930]} or "east of Main and north of Willow Street"^{[Cen 1920]} on the northeast side of town. They continued on Main Street through 1940, when Jess worked as a stationary engineer at a gold mine and son Donald, who was marked as absent, worked as a salesman for a wholesale woolen distributor.^{[Cen 1940]}

Jess was also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F) at the Table Mountain Lodge 405 near Jamestown. In January 1942 he was installed as an officer at the lodge.^{[News 1942]}

Jesse Norman Goss died on February 1, 1946, at the age of 62. He was buried at Saint James Catholic Cemetery in Jamestown.^[Grave]

Hazel (O'Neill) Goss died six months later on August 21, 1946, at the age of 55 years. She was also buried at Saint James Catholic Cemetery in Jamestown.^[Grave]

Continue on to Part II