Marshall
County, Indiana
Biographies
FRANK WILLIAM BOSS.
Among the county
officials of Cherokee County, one whose previous record, general
qualifications for ability and character, gave, at the time of his
election, in 1912, every ground for a successful career, and whose
discharge of the duties of his office has since vindicated the faith
placed in him, is Frank William Boss, county attorney. Mr. Boss has the
reputation of being an indefatigable worker, combining scholarship with
an active energy and forceful personality, and these qualities have
been much esteemed in an office in which the people of the county have
endeavored to place men who would lend thorough integrity and practical
efficiency to the administration.
Mr. Boss was born at
Plymouth, the county seat of Marshall County, Indiana, January 4, 1874,
and is a son of John and Mary (Conrad) Boss, and a grandson of a native
of the Canton of Berne, Switzerland, who came to the United States and
spent his latter years in farming in Kosciusko County, Indiana, where
Jae died. John Boss, the father of Frank W., was born in 1839, in
Berne, Switzerland, and was twelve years of age when brought to the
United States by his parents. He had commenced his education in his
native land, and it was completed in the district schools of Kosciusko
County, Indiana, where he was reared to manhood and brought up as a
farmer. At the time of his marriage, he engaged in farming on his own
account, in Koaciusko County, but some time thereafter removed to
Marshall County, Indiana, and located on a farm near Plymouth. He
possessed the racial characteristics of industry and honorable dealing,
and through persistent and well directed effort succeeded in the
development of a good farm and the founding of a comfortable home. Mr.
Boss continued to be engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1900, when,
feeling that he had done his share in the world 's work, he retired
from active affairs and moved to his home at Plymouth, where he now
resides. In the several communities in which Mr. Boss has made his home
he has shown himself a public spirited citizen, who has been willing to
aid good movements, and as a generous and kindly friend and neighbor. .
He is a republican, but politics has played but little part in his
life, his activities therein being principally confined to the casting
of his vote. Mr. Boas married Miss Mary Conrad, who was born in 1842,
in Kosciusko County, Indiana, and died at Plymouth, that state, in
1914. They became the parents of the following children: Rose, who
married C. W. Wade, a retired farmer of Plymouth, Indiana; Laura, a
teacher in the city schools of Plymouth, who makes her home with her
father; Ella, who is the wife of F. E. Garn, president of a trust
company at Chicago. Illinois; Lizzie, who married W. F. Walter, and
resides at Bremen, Indiana, where Mr. Walter is engaged in the
mercantile business; Jacob H., a graduate of the Chicago College of
Physicians and Surgeons, and now a practicing physician of the Illinois
metropolis;
Frank William, of this
notice; and Carrie, who is a teacher in the city schools of Plymouth,
Indiana. Frank William Boss was brought up on the home farm in Marshall
County, Indiana, and secured his primary education in the public
schools of that vicinity. Subsequently he pursued a course at the
Plymouth High School, from which he was duly graduated in 1894, and
immediately thereafter entered the law department of the University of
Michigan, at Ann Arbor, where he remained three years. Graduated with
the class of 1897 and the degree of Bachelor of Laws, he returned to
Plymouth and after some further preparation embarked upon the practice
of law in his home community. He remained there for seven years and
then secured an appointment to the position of inspector of immigration
in the eastern part of
the Mexican border, there
remaining for three years. In 1910 Mr. Boss located at Scammon, Kansas,
where he practiced for two years and served in the capacity of city
attorney, and in 1912, upon his election to the office of county
attorney, on the republican ticket, came to his present location at
Columbus. He has enforced the law without fear or favor and during his
four years of office has shown himself a courageous, energetic and
entirely capable official, with a realization' of the responsibilities
placed in his hands. Mr. Boss' offices are in the Court House, while
his residence, which he owns, is at No. 519 Kansas Avenue. Fraternally
Mr. Boss is connected with Scammon Lodge No. 351, Ancient Free and
Accepted Masons; Fort Scott Consistory No. 6, thirty-second degree,
Pittsburg; and Mirza Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic
Shrine, and with the Knights of Pythias, of Columbus.
In 1899, at Chicago,
Illinois, Mr. Boss was married to Miss Alice Lehr, daughter of H. A.
and Eleanor (Carnahan) Lehr, of Bremen, Indiana. Mr. Lehr was for some
years county auditor of Marshall County, Indiana, but is now living
retired. Mr. and Mrs. Boss are the parents of two children: Marcellus
G., born January 24, 1901, who is now a junior in the Cherokee County
High School, and Eleanor Mary, born October 12, 1916.
Source: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans By William Elsey
Connelley