Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Goss, George ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com November 10, 2007, 12:53 am Author: Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County GEORGE GOSS, who has been a businessman of Joliet since 1864, was born at Wurtzburg-on-the-Main, Bavaria, Germany, August 27, 1838, a son of George and Elizabeth Goss, natives of the same place. He was the youngest of five children, and the only one to come to the United States. His father, who was the son of a soldier in the Napoleonic wars in Germany and Russia, was captain of the first steamboat on the Main and also on the Rhine, and continued at the head of the line until the company retired from business in 1870. His death occurred in 1880, when he was eighty years of age. His wife had died at the age of thirty-five years. In 1854 our subject took passage at Bremen on the sailing vessel "North Wind," which arrived in New York after a voyage of twenty-nine days. Proceeding to Buffalo, he worked at the butcher's trade for a year there, and then spent a similar period in Milwaukee. In 1856 he went to Chicago, where he was employed as a butcher for two years. His next location was in Ottawa, where he carried on a business of his own. The year 1864 found him in Joliet, where he started a meat market on Joliet street, between Jefferson and Washington. However, he sold out in two months, and formed a partnership in the retail meat and produce business with Joseph Reichmann, opening a market on Chicago street near Jefferson. Later the market was moved across the street, where he continued business alone. He also built a double stone store building on Chicago street, across the alley from the Barber building. For two years or more he was a member of the firm of Goss & Adler, on Exchange, near Bluff street. The present post-office building, at Nos. 113- 115 Jefferson street, was built by Mr. Goss in 1893. It is a two-story building, 44x80 feet, the first floor of which is occupied by the post-office. In 1896 he bought the store at No. 405 Washington street, where he has a three- story building, 22X 150. Of recent years he has carried on a whole-sale meat busiuess. He has a packing house in Joliet Township, two miles northeast of the city, where he carries on a rendering factory. He also conducts a wholesale business in hides, etc. Besides this business, he owns a small farm in Joliet Township. While he is now in prosperous circumstances, and has made a success of his business, yet he has met with his share of reverses. During the time he spent in Ottawa he lost almost everything through the absconding of a government contractor, and in 1873, when the panic came on, he lost the first two buildings he erected in Joliet. In politics he is a Republican, and in religion holds membership in St. John's Roman Catholic Church. The marriage of Mr. Goss, in Ottawa, united him with Miss Anna Boersle, who was born in Dayton, Ill. They are the parents of six children, the eldest of whom is his father's namesake and business partner. The others are Fred; Mrs. Minnie Mergel, of Chicago; Annie; Louisa, at home; and Mrs. Emma Kennedy, of Joliet. Additional Comments: Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County Illinois Containing Biographies of Well Known Citizens of the Past and Present, Biographical Publishing Company, Chicago, 1900 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/will/bios/goss1052gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ilfiles/ File size: 3.8 Kb