Gottlieb Joss

Pictures publish date 1878.
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Gottlieb Joss, farmer, stock raiser and feeder, proprietor of Maple Grove Stock Farm, Section 22, Township 2, Range 15, P. O. Fairview, was born in Canton Berne, Switzerland, January 24, 1829 and lived in his native country until his fifth year, when his parents immigated (sic) to America, first locating in Weinsberg, Holmes Co., Ohio. Mr. Joss lived in Ohio until the spring of 1858, and then removed to East Troy, Walworth Co., Wis., where he remained six months. From there he came to Kansas, locating in the city of Leavenworth, November 28, 1858, remaining in this city five and a half years, and working at his trade - that of wagon maker.

In the fall of 1863 he removed to Atchison County, where he lived six months, and then removed to his farm in Walnut Township, Brown County, where he has resided since. He is a member of the Congregational Church of Fairview. He was Treasurer of School District No. 16, Brown County, for six years. He took part in the War of the Rebellion, as a member of Captain I. N. Speer's Company, Twenty-second regiment Kansas Militia, and enlisted in Walnut Township in October, 1864; severed one month and was discharged at Kansas City.

He was married in Holmes County, Ohio, May 23, 1852, to Miss Martha Robinett, a native of Ohio. They have nine children living - Christian Frederic, (married to Miss Allie Driblebeis, a native of Ohio), Rosa, Charles W., (married to Miss Hattie Gardner, a native of Kansas), George E., John Frank, William I., Edward C., Jess Warren and Myrtle Leonara. Maple Grove Stock Farm, as Mr. Joss' fine estate is known, is one of the finest and best improved farms in Brown County. It contains 720 acres; is all enclosed by substantial fences; is divided into bottom, timber and upland; is in a high state of cultivation, and is well supplied with water by means of wells, springs and Spring Creek, which flows in a southeast direction the farm.

The orchards cover ten acres. Orchard No. 1 contains 500 apple, 400 peach, and a number of pear and cherry trees. Orchard No. 2 contains about 300 fruit trees of all varieties. There is also a magnificent maple grove on the property, from which the farm takes its name. The improvements are superb, and include among others, a new and modern built family mansion, containing nine rooms, elegantly furnished and surrounded by handsome shrubbery, shade trees and evergreens; two tenant houses, one containing four, the other six rooms; a frame barn, 22x50 feet; a combined granary, corn-crib and implement house, 40x52 feet, etc.

Mr. J. raises 800 bushels of corn; cuts from 50 to 60 acres of hay, yearly; has 80 acres seeded down to timothy, clover and blue-grass; feeds two car loads of cattle; keeps 125 fine-grade cattle; 200 head of Poland-China and Berkshire hogs, and 16 head of horses. Mr. Joss is one of the early settlers of Brown; has made his means here and speaks in high terms of this portion of Kansas. He is an earnest, intelligent and prosperous farmer, and a useful and popular citizen.