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Robert Frederick Goss Sr & Sarah F. Williams  My
great-grandfather, Robert Frederick Goss
Sr., was born
November 8,
1854 in
Missouri. He was the son
of Jesse S. Goss
(Jan 23, 1829 - Apr 12, 1901) of North Carolina and Sarah Small. The family moved to Missouri before 1860. R. F. Goss is living with his father and stepmother in the 1870 Greene County Missouri census. By 1880 he is living with Reverend Constantine Dryden as a boarder and farm laborer in the 1880 Grayson County Texas census. On June 20, 1880, R. F. Goss married Sarah F. Williams in Whitesboro. Reverend Constantine Dryden, Methodist, performed the ceremony. I have copies of the family Bible that they started on their wedding day June 20th 1880. The Bible is over 100 years old and falling apart. It was in the possession of a distant family member who is now deceased. The images are at the bottom of this page. Robert Frederick Goss is listed in the 1900 Grayson County, Texas census as a railroad flagman. He and Sarah F. are listed with their children: Jessie James (Nov 18, 1883 - Dec 15 1910); Frances Elizabeth (Mar 21 1888 - Jul 11 1960); Hester Ann (Feb 20 1892 - Apr 5 1967); Arvin (Feb 15 1896 - Apr 7 1943); Charles Calvert (Feb 10 1899 - June 6 1900). Another child not listed in the census was Exeyodus (May 14 1893 - Jan 8 1894). My grandfather, Robert Arvin Goss, was always called by his middle name Arvin. Robert Frederick Goss died April 12, 1901 in a tragic train accident in Denison. Sunday Gazetteer Apr 14, 1901 MET A HORRIBLE FATE Flagman Goss is killed at the Main Street crossing. R. F. Goss, The M K and T flagman of the Main Street crossing, was run over and killed Friday at 3:30 p.m. by switch engine No. 31, in charge of Engineer sales. No two persons ever see an accident alike and there are several versions of just how it happened. Several eye witnesses state that a party of ladies had left the depot platform to cross the tracks. A switch engine was moving near the crossing and Goss advanced to give them warning. He was so intent on watching the ladies that he did not see a switch engine which was coming on the track on which he was standing. The engineer supposed of course that the flagman would step to one side as he had done a hundred times. But he did not move and was crushed and mangled to death, his body being literally cut into fine particles and strung along the rails for a distance of 25 yards. After the accident the remains were put into a sack and carried to the M K and T freight depot. The deceased has been here for a number of years employed at the freight department. When Jimmy Cater went to the hospital at Sedatis, Goss took his place. He was a man about 40 years of age, and leaves a wife and four children to mourn his untimely fate. Sarah F. Small Goss died Mar 6, 1915 in Denison of pneumonia. In the 1910 census she was working as a laborer at the cotton mill. Also shown in the 1910 census is my grandfather, Robert Arvin Goss, working in the cotton mill as a spinner at the age of 14. Jesse James Goss was not named after the outlaw Jesse James, but rather after his grandfathers, Jesse S. Goss and James F. Williams. He worked as a boiler maker and married Mabel Irene Fowler in 1908. He committed suicide on December 15, 1910 by gunshot in Amarillo, Texas. His younger brother, Robert Arvin Goss (my grandfather) traveled from Denison to Amarillo, retrieving Jesse's body, signing the death certificate, and taking him back to Denison for burial at Oakwood. Goss family
members Robert Frederick, Sarah F., Jesse
James,
and Charles Calvert are all buried at Oakwood
Cemetery My
grandfather, Robert Arvin Goss, was
born in Denison on February 15, 1896. He was
only 5 years old when his father
died
in the train accident. In 1914 he joined the
Navy at Dallas,
Texas. He was 18 years old, 5' 5' tall,
weighed 125 lbs, and had a
tattoo "A. G. star 1911". "A. G." stands for
Arvin Goss. I do not
know what the star and 1911 symbolize. He
lists his address as still
being
Route #5 Denison. He stayed in the Navy
until his death in San Diego
Navy
hospital on April 7, 1943. He is buried at
Fort Rosecrans National
Cemetery. Robert
Arvin Goss and Laura
Hill Scarborough of Alba, Texas married on
December 29, 1919. Laura was
born May
2, 1900 and died in 1981. They moved back
and forth from Denison to San
Diego, CA until about 1936 when they made
San Diego their permanent
home. Their children were:
My father,
Robert Arvin Goss Jr. was born in San Diego
and, except for
the moves to/from Denison as a child, lived
in 
 ca 1943
 Biography Index Susan Hawkins ©2025 If you find any of Grayson County TXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |
