WABASHA COUNTY, MINNESOTA ***************************************************************************** Biography transcribed & donated to Wabasha County, MN Bios by Barbara Koska Timm. For more information, please check out her site "Biographies and Historical Sketches of Wabasha County, Minnesota" at . ***************************************************************************** "HISTORY OF WABASHA COUNTY MINNESOTA" COMPILED BY FRANKLYN CURTISS-WEDGE AND OTHERS ILLUSTRATED WINONA, MINN. H. C. COOPER, JR., & CO. 1920 Boss, John (page), late county auditor of Wabasha County, and for a number of years before his death one of the foremost citizens of the county, was born in the Town of Gillford, Wabasha County, Minn., March 4, 1884, son of Andrew and Janet (Nesbit) Boss. His parents were pioneers of this locality and he spent his boyhood days on the farm where he was born. After attending the public schools he took a course in the Minnesota School of Agriculture, from which he graduated in the class of 1902. He subsequently engaged in agriculture and resided on his farm near Zumbro Falls until the fall of 1914, when he was elected county auditor and took up his residence in Wabasha. As a public official he proved able and faithful and left behind him a record worthy of emulation. An intensely loyal American, when his country engaged in war to defend the rights of American citizens and the cause of world democracy, he rendered it his whole-hearted service. True, he did not wear the uniform of the army, but he was in a very real sense a soldier of the United States, and faithfully and efficiently performed his strenuous duties as secretary of the local draft board from the time of its organization. While his name will not be printed in the casualty list of those who gave their lives for their country, it surely deserves to be, for it was undoubtedly his close application to the duties of his office and his war work which caused the loss of vitality the want of which rendered him unable to effectively resist the disease that caused his death. An attack of the then prevailing influenza was followed by pneumonia, from which he suffered for a week, and which terminated in his death at about 12 o'clock on the night of Saturday, October 26, 1918. His wife and children, besides other relatives, and a host of personal friends were left to mourn his untimely demise. The funeral, which was necessarily private, was held on Monday, the remains being taken to Lake City and interred in the cemetery there. Rev. E. D. Gallagher had charge of the services, and the Masonic fraternities of which the deceased was a member attended at the grave. In the death of Mr. Boss the community and the entire county lost one of its most useful and esteemed citizens. He was a man of great strength of character, and when once convinced he was on the right course could not be swayed from it. In a word, he was a clean living, right-thinking, honest man whose friendship and association were highly prized by those who knew him best. His life's work was short, but he accomplished more in the time allotted to him than many who lived much longer. Though he passed on before, his memory will long remain as an inspiration to the living. Mr. Boss was united in marriage, at Lake City, Minn., with Louise F. Koehler, who was born February 22, 1888, daughter of Henry J. and Ida (Kuehn) Koehler. They had four children, all of whom are now living, namely: Jean Louise, born August 20, 1908; Amy Jannette, January 10, 1910; Lloyd John, May 21, 1911, and Forest, May 21, 1913. Mr. Boss also left five brothers and two sisters; Mrs. J. H. Lamb, and James and David Boss, of Gillford; Andrew and William Boss of St. Paul; Mrs. J. E. Knight, of Sherwood, Ore., and Alex Boss, who lives in Washington.