Untitled From Biographical Record of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Counties, Wisconsin, publ. 1901- page 598-599

JOHN A. BOSSI, an honored and highly respected citizen of Grant county, whose home is on section 34, Wyalusing township, is a veteran of the war of the Rebellion, having served his adopted country faithfully and well as a member of Company I, 43d Wis. V.I. A native of Switzerland, he was born in Cantron Graubunden, Sept. 1, 1844, a son of John Francis and Barbara BOSSI. He lost his mother when he was a small child, and his father died about 1861.

In 1863, at the age of eighteen years, Mr. BOSSI came to America, leaving Switzerland June 15, and arriving in Grant county, Wis., July 15. He is the only one of his father's family who ever came to the New World. On reaching the shores of this country he could not speak a word of English, but after working on a farm one summer he entered school at Bradtville, Wyalusing township, and made such rapid advancement in his studies during the winter that he was soon able to speak English with very little foreign accent.

On Aug. 29, 1864, Mr. BOSSI entered the service in defense of his adopted country, as a member of Company I, 43d Wis. V.I., and with his regiment went directly to Nashville, and thence to Johnsonville. He fought under Gen. Schofield, in the 23d Army corps in the engagement at the latter place, and was with Gen. Thomas in the famous battle of Nashville. After that engagement the command to which he belonged, like a large part of Thomas' army, did guard duty most of the time until the close of the war. Mr. BOSSI had many narrow escapes from the bullets of the enemy, but was never seriously injured. He was honorably discharged at Nashville June 24, 1865, and is today the youngest but one of those belonging to Grand Army Post No. 23.

After receiving his discharge Mr. BOSSI returned to Wyalusing township, Grant Co., Wis., where he has always made his home since coming to the United States. On Sept. 30, 1869, he married Mrs. Martha G. GULICK, widow of Edward D. GULICK, who was also a soldier in the war for the Union, being a member of Company C, 2d Wisconsin Cavalry; he died in the service, at Helena, Ark., Oct. 2, 1862. Mrs. BOSSI was born in the town of Sherman, Chautauqua Co., N.Y., in 1840, and bore the maiden name of Martha Goodrich BARNES, being a daughter of Charles D. and Sophia BARNES. Her family came to Grant county, Wis., in 1853, and the parents made their home in Wyalusing township until death. Of their nine children, Mrs. BOSSI is now the only survivor. Her brother, Allen J. BARNES, enlisted at the age of eighteen years in the 33d Wis. V.I., and died at Memphis, Tenn., in March, 1863. Mr. and Mrs. BOSSI have one daughter living, Mrs. Catherine Isador GLASS, of Wyalusing township. They have lost two children: Barbara Sophia, the eldest, who was married March 19, 1890, to Clarence E. PATCH, of Patch Grove, and died Jan. 1, 1900, at the age of twenty-nine years; and Charles Francis, who died at the age of twenty months. Mrs. BOSSI has two daughters by her first marriage: Ann, now the wife of Charles SCHUYLER, living near Sioux City, Iowa; and Rosa, wife of Henry DAY, of Wyalusing township. Her stepdaughter, Nancy Jane GULICK, born Aug. 5, 1855, married Christopher EGGLESTON, a soldier, who died three years ago; Mrs. EGGLESTON now resides at her old home in the town of Wyalusing.

Mr. BOSSI's army life broke down his health and from the effects of the same he has never recovered. To add to his misfortunes he has become almost entirely deprived of his eyesight, being practically blind. In many respects he is quite a remarkable man. As stated, he came to this country when but a youth, and found himself a stranger in a strange land, ignorant of the habits and language of the people; but applying himself to study he soon mastered the language, and adopted himself to the conditions of his new surroundings. Scarcely had he been in the country a year when he volunteered to fight in defense of the flag of his adoption, and his war record was an honorable one, being that of a good and faithful soldier.

To the general public, perhaps, Mr. BOSSI is best known for his skill as a musician. He organized the Wyalusing Cornet Band, of which he was long the popular leader. He is a natural musician, playing with equal facility all musical instruments. His daughter seems to have inherited much of her father's talent in this direction, while the little son, though not two years old at the time of his death, displayed a remarkably musical ear and discernment of harmony in musical sounds. Mr. BOSSI's first vote was cast, in 1864, while at the front, and he is pardonably proud of the fact that he supported Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency.

Mrs. BOSSI, the only living representative of one of the Grant county's early families, deserves more than a mere passing mention in this article. In early life, only a short time before the inauguration of the Civil war, she married Mr. GULICK, and when the struggle began her young husband departed for the field of strife, never to return. She was thus left with two small children, one two years old, the other but two months. However, she bore her troubles with patience and resolution, as became the widow of a solider. Like her husband, Mrs. BOSSI is held in high esteem.



This biography generously submitted by Carol Holmbeck