Goss, Albert Bruce 1851-1906

GOSS, KIMBALL

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes
Date: 10/20/2014 at 10:05:05

Unidentified Newspaper
March 30, 1906

ALBERT BRUCE GOSS

Albert Bruce Goss, eldest child of Perry and Mary Frances Goss, was born April 12 1851, near Crawfordsville, Indiana, and died at his home one mile south of Grinnell, Iowa, March 26 1906, being nearly fifty-five years of age. He was of old Massachusetts stock and carried Puritan principles into all the details of his life. At the age of three years he went with the rest of the family to live in Grundy county, Ill., where his mother still lives. He lived on the farm and attended district school until the fall of 1869 when he entered the Academy at Crawfordsville, Ind., to prepare for college. He graduated from Wabash College in 1877, having spent some time in teaching. He took his Master's degree in 1880. After graduation he studied law and fitted himself for the bar but never engaged in practice. In the fall of 1880 he accepted the principalship of the schools at Menlo, Iowa, then called Guthrie, where he continued for two years. He was assistant principal in the Guthrie County High School at Panora for the year following and then left teaching to engage in the drug business at Panora. In 1888 he went to Keosauqua as superintendent of the town schools which position he occupied for five years, after which he was county superintendent at Van Buren county, vacating that office in May 1898. While living in Keosauqua he was one of the organizers of the Keosauqua State Bank and was secretary of both the stockholders and directors while he remained there. In the fall of 1898 he removed to Fairfield where for a year he was principal of the high school. In 1891 Mr. Goss received a Teacher's Life Diploma for the state of Iowa, and for four years he was one of the seven members of the State Teachers Reading Circle Board. In March 1900 he moved to the farm he had just bought near Grinnell where he continued to live until the 26th of March, 1906, when he laid down the burden of earthly cares and labors. Mr. Goss was married Aug. 10, 1882, to Miss Ellen Kimball of Stowe, Vermont and, in spite of cares and labors and suffering, their home life has been a very devoted and happy one. To them were born three sons, Perry Kimball, Aug. 16, 1885; Bruce Spillman, March 2, 1887; Edwin Emery, August 8, 1893, all of whom with the mother are living at the home near this city. Mr. Goss was a consistent Christian, a member of the Congregational church at Grinnell, though formerly and by choice a Presbyterian. His daily life was tersely summed up by a gray bearded farmer neighbor who looked upon his face for the last time and said, "He was straight every day, straight every day."

There were seven brothers and two sisters in the Goss family and this is but the second break in the circle by death. The funeral services took place at the residence at ten o'clock Wednesday morning, March 28, conducted by Rev. Charles Perkins, the former pastor of the family in Keosauqua, assisted by E.M. Vittum, their pastor here. The high school quartette volunteered to sing as a tribute of affection for their classmate Bruce Goss. Flowers were in ample evidence from loving friends and from the brother Masons. The body was laid to rest in Hazelwood with the impressive ritual service of the Masonic Order. The relatives present from abroad were Miss Mary F. Goss of Chicago, John F. Goss of New Rockford, N. Dak., Dr. Edwin L. Goss of Carrington, N. Dak., Julius C. Goss of Langham, Ill.