Goss Family History, 1st Generation

Andrew & Elizabeth

Following his service as a rifleman, Andrew married the daughter of Scottish immigrants named Elizabeth Goodwin from Bear Gap, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. She was probably as young as 15 at the time; he, about 27. They soon had their first of six sons, Jim on May 7, 1868.

During the 1870's, four more sons were born to the Goss family: Charles A., William A., Benjamin Roland, and John Charles. On September 10, 1874, Andrew filed an application for a land claim for 133.29 acres in the southeast quarter of Coulterville. The homestead was finalized in 1883. Andrew also filed a land patent on February 15, 1876, for a tract in La Grange Township, Tuolumne County (Township 3 South, Range 14 East, Section 6), which is likely along State Highway 59 just north of the Stanislaus-Tuolumne County line.

The 1880's, however, were mixed with fortune and misfortune: John Charles died in 1882 at the age of 3, but Jesse Norman was born on November 29, 1883. Soon thereafter, about 1886, Andrew and Elizabeth's approximate 19-year marriage ended in divorce. After the divorce, Elizabeth and youngest son Jesse N. moved to Tuolumne, Tuolumne County where she was a hotel keeper.^{[Cen 1900]}

The 1890's brought more misfortune to the Goss family: sons William and Charles died, and following this, four grandchildren were born, two of whom died soon after.

Andrew & Theresa

Andrew later married Theresa (Ferretti) Garbarino, an Italian immigrant who was nearly half his age, on November 19, 1898, in Sonora, Tuolumne County. She was the widow of Angelo Garbarino who died around 1890 leaving four daughters. Her youngest daughter Rosa, who was 10 years old when Theresa remarried, eventually took the Goss name.^{[Mar 1909]}

Within a year of their marriage they lived in Big Oak Flat, Tuolumne County, where Andrew worked as a farmer and Theresa's father, Frank Ferretti, boarded with them and helped as a farm hand.^{[Cen 1900]}

Andrew's original homestead, the Goss Ranch, was 160 acres, although an unfenced mining claim runs through it leaving about 138 acres. After Andrew's and Elizabeth's divorce, they split the estate. Andrew's half eventually became his son Jim's, who later turned it over to his youngest daughter Bussie. When Bussie moved to Oakdale, she sold it to her niece Billy.

Elizabeth ended up defaulting on her taxes and the estate was bought out by a local cattle rancher, Tim Carlon. Later Carlon sold the property to the Merced Gold Mining Company from whom granddaughter, Ila Goss-Barrett bought it. Ila later sold the property to her daughter Billy so that now much of the original homestead remains in Billy's hands.

Andrew sold his home in Coulterville in 1904 after he let went delinquent on his taxes. It was at this time that he moved to the Fair Oak district of Stockton, San Joaquin County, where Andrew worked as a watchman for Union Oil.

On the evening of December 8, 1912, Andrew is recalled to have been sitting at the diner table in his home at 1701 E. Scotts Avenue in Stockton with his eldest son Jim. Andrew took out his pocket watch, placed it on the table and slumped over with a heart attack. He died the following morning at 8:00 a.m., December 9, 1912,^{[Dth 1912]} survived by his wife, Theresa; ex-wife and mother of his sons, Elizabeth; three sons, James Sr., Benjamin², and Jesse; and six grandchildren, Stella, William, Zelda, Ila, Eloise “Bussie”, and Lloyd³. He was 72 years old. Andrew is buried at the Coulterville Cemetery.

Andrew is remembered to have loved music. His sons played a wide range of musical instruments which attracted the attention of many townsfolk who came to hear the Goss boys play. In addition to being a saddler, gold miner, and rifleman, Andrew was also a teamster, constable of Coulterville, an apprentice Mason, and is said to have been a director of the construction of the Yosemite-Coulterville pike, the first major road into Yosemite.

After Andrew

Theresa remarried two years later to Edwin Kendall Williams, a divorcée and native of Illinois, on December 24, 1914, in Stockton. Edwin worked as a diaryman in Lindsay, Tulare County, California, at the time. Witnesses to their marriage were Flora A. Parker and Cyril Kenyon, both of Stockton.^{[Mar 1914]}

Theresa and Edwin apparently divorced and Theresa remarried to Thomas Robert Lee, a native of Alabama, on March 6, 1919, in San Francisco.^{[Mar 1919]} They continued to live Stockton and rented a house at 520 North American Street. Thomas worked as a paper hanger for W. J. Hicox.^{[Mar 1919, Cen 1920]} By 1930 they moved about seven blocks south and bought a house at 214 South American Street. Thomas worked as a painter.^{[Cen 1930]}

Theresa Mary (Ferretti Garbarino Goss) Lee died on April 24, 1941, in Stockton, San Joaquin County, California, at the age of 78 years. She was buried in Park View Cemetery, south of Stockton in Manteca, San Joaquin County.^{[Dth 1941A, Grave]}

Thomas Robert Lee died six months later on October 19, 1941, in Stockton, at the age of 76 years. He was buried with Theresa in Park View Cemetery on October 28.^{[Dth 1941B, Grave]}