Joseph Samuel Gosser moved from Woodford County to Madison County when the Kentucky River as we know it was just a creek. He married Lily Thompson and they had one daughter, Kitty. When Kitty was about three or four Lily took her daughter and left. His search for his daughter, Kitty was an unsuccessful one. Joseph stayed behinde and lived in the house that had belonged to Lily's parents. The house was two storied with two bedrooms upstair and four rooms downstairs with four large porches surrounding the house and was located on the river. When the Kentucky River was just a creek people would ride their horses across but by 1900 dams were built making it impossible to cross other than on a boat. Joseph built a Ferry boat and for the next seventeen years or so carried people across the river, and in that time period when one boat would wear out he would build another one going through a total of three boat . His most frequent passenger was an old country doctor, Doc Webb who travel between Madison and Clark counties to care for the sick. The Ferry boat was the shortest route between Richmond and Winchester, the only other way to travel was to go down through Boonesboro to cross over the river. On November 4, 1904 Joseph married Rebecca Taylor Shearer, the daughter of A.B. and Esther"Hampton" Shearer. They had only one child, a daughter Edith Gaines Gosser who was born December 24, 1908. Edith 's closest friend , and the closest thing to a sister to her was a daughter of the McIntire family. The McIntires' lived in a house boat on the Clark county side of the river, but later Joseph let them move the boat to his side so they would have access to a well. Edith was named after the Gaines family whom Joseph thought highly of . Along with running the Ferry, Joseph was also a farmer and in later years he hired Tom McIntosh to run the ferry until Tom got to old to handle it and in 1917 Joseph sold the house and the Ferry Boat business to Mr. Allen Hisle and donated all his time to his 70 acre farm he had brought several years earlier outside of Doyesville. Joseph became sick in July of 1947 and died December 8th of the same year at his farm. Rebecca stayed on the farm for about a year longer before finally selling it and moved to a house on Bloomingfield Road in the city of Winchester near her daughter. She lived there until her death on June 29, 1955 at the age of 76 years. Although Joseph died in Doyesville, his body was brought to Winchester for burial and both Joseph and Rebecca are buried at the Winchester Cemetery.

Crawford Family Genealogy
Created by Sharon Burnett Crawford
Visitor Since 1/20/00
Last Update:   Thursday, 20-Jan-2000 15:51:12 PST
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