Burial: Mount
Pleasant Cemetery, Chaska, Carver County, Minnesota
Mustered Out
Date: Unknown
Rank: Private
Residence following
military service: Chaska, Carver County, Minnesota
Vocation following
military service: Farmer
John Boss Biography and Civil
War Narrative
John Boss was born in Switzerland
on March 7, 1831. He enlisted in Company A of the 5th Minnesota on
January 6, 1862, as a private. He may have been living in Goodhue or Dodge county when he joined
the army. No date is given for John's mustering out, but at his death
he was recognized as a veteran, so he may have been mustered out with
his company on September 6, 1865. After the war, John lived in Chaska,
Carver County, Minnesota.
Newspaper articles report
the following events in John's life:
John Boss sold a house and
lot to a Peter Barthel (Weekly Valley Herald; August 22, 1872)
John Boss, owner of Oak
Grove Saloon, is building a bowling alley at the fork of Chaska,
Smithtown, and Victoria Road (Weekly Valley Herald; June 12, 1873)
The 1880 census shows him at age
49 living with his wife, Fredericka, and an Anton Boss, age 46
(possibly John's brother). Fredericka nee Schmidt was born March 1,
1852, in Prussia, and was age 27 at the time of the census.
John Boss died December 23, 1891, in Carver County, Minnesota. He was
buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Chaska, Carver County, Minnesota.
Obituaries reporting his death were published in the Weekly Valley
Herald (December 24, 1891) and the Carver County News (January 1 &
8, 1892). John's will was recorded in pages 26-27 of the Carver County,
Minnesota Will Book, Volume C.
Newspaper articles further report the following events in Fredericka's
life after John's death:
Mrs. Boss purchased a house
and lot from the Arndt brothers (Weekly Valley Herald; March 5, 1903,
p. 5)
Fredericka Boss sold
property to August Lange (Weekly Valley Herald; September 17, 1903, p.
1)
Fredericka's father, "old
settler" Mr. Schmidt, died (November 1(?), 1906, p. 1) NOTE: this may be Friedrich Schmidt, who
died November 23, 1906, and is also buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery
Peter Stacken becomes the
owner of the old John Boss property (Weekly Valley Herald; November 7,
1912, p. 5)
Fredericka (Schmidt) Boss died
suddenly on November 8, 1926, in her home in Carver County, Minnesota.
She was buried with her husband in Mount Pleasant Cemetery. Obituaries
for Fredericka were published in both the Weekly Valley Herald and the
Waconia Patriot on November 18, 1926.
John Boss