Biography of Chester S Boss of Jonesville, Hillsdale county, Michigan


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From "History of North Washington" Published 1904

Transcribed by: Candy Grubb (candyg@theofficenet.com)
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CHESTER S. BOSS
	Chester S. Boss, prominently identified with the mercantile industry,
general farming, and fruit growing, resides at Bossburg, Stevens county,
which town he founded, and which, in his honor, is named, was born in
Jonesville, Michigan, September 28, 1843.  His parents were Truman and Sarah
(Carr) Boss, natives of New York, whence they removed to Michigan about 1835.
In 1846 they went to Wisconsin, and in 1855 to Minnesota, being territorial
pioneers.  They located at Fairbault, Rice county, and thirty-four years
later moved to Sauk Center, where they died at the age of seventy-five years.
They were the parents of four sons, who arrived at manhood's estate:Theodore,
dying in the army in 1863; Chester, our subject; Charles M., of Sauk Center;
and Eugene, of Wadena, Minnesota, and now auditor of Wadena county.
	Educated in Wisconsin and Minnesota, our subject enlisted, August 8,
1862, in Company C, Sixth Minnesota Volunteers, Captain Baily, Colonel
William Crooks, at present one of the officials of the O. R. & N. Railroad
Company.  Our subject served during the Indian outbreak in Minnesota, in
1862, and within ten days after his enlistment was engaged burying the dead
killed near Fort Ridgley and then participated in the two battles of Birch
Coulee and Wood Lake.  In 1863 his company pursued the hostile Indians to
Dakota, and across the Missouri river.  Returning to Fort Snelling in the
fall, the members of the regiment were anxious to go south, but were sent on
to the frontier.  However, the regiment was ordered south in the spring of
1864, and at Helena, Arkansas, the entire regiment was afflicted with fever,
one half of the soldiers dying.  In the spring following, the regiment went
to New Orleans, in the Sixteenth Corps, thence to Sanford, where they
captured Spanish Fort, thence went up to Alabama river, to Montgomery, and in
the spring of 1865 they lived for ten days on raw corn.  On August 20, 1865,
he was mustered out at Fort Snelling.  Our subject then went to Stearns
county, secured a homestead, upon which he lived several years, but
eventually traded the land for a half interest in a saw mill.  This property
he sold and drove stock to Fort Gary, now Winnipeg, and two years subsequently
went to the Black Hills.  Here he freighted and finally returned to Minnesota
settled at Osakis, and remained there five years.  In 1888 he came to
Spokane, removing his family there later, and in 1890 came to Marcus, Stevens
county, where he conducted a mercantile business in a tent.  He then came to
Bossburg, or what was afterward to become Bossburg,  where he has remained in
business successfully, ever since.  He secured the establishment here of a
postoffice, named Bossburg, and served as the initial postmaster of the same
for eight years.  A portion of the land pre-empted by Mr. Boss became the
site of the town.  Here he and his wife reside in a substantial house
surrounded by commodious buildings, and the largest orchard in the vicinity.
	In 1866 Mr. Boss was married to Belinda Bolles, daughter of Thomas
and Elizabeth (Sears) Bolles, natives of New York.  Mr. and Mrs. Boss have
three children: Mabel, wife of Dr. M.B. Grieve, of Spokane; Nina, wife of
R.C. Crowell, of Bossburg; and Irene, married to Grant Hinkle, of Spokane.
Mr. Boss is a Republican, and has been school director since the organization
of the town.  He is commander of the Bossburg Post, G.A.R., No.101, and he
and wife are members of the Congregational church.