Surnames: Goss, Filitz

----Source: Neillsville Press (Neillsville, Clark County, Wis.) Aug. 14, 1930

BOB GOSS VISITS OLD HOME

Under the spell of "homing" instinct which so often drives older men and women back to the scenes of their childhood Robert Goss of Minneapolis Bob Goss, people here used to call himcame to Neillsville last week to seek out old familiar scenes and visit such friends of this community. Mr. Goss, who is 76 years of age, came here with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. W. C. Goss, when a small boy in 1858. The father homesteaded 80 acres of land half a mile west of Day Corners on the south side of the road in the town of Levis, the farm now known as the Filitz place.

Here Robert grew to manhood. Before he was of age he bought the forty acres across the road from the home farm and built a barn on the land. In 1882 the family moved to Minneapolis. In 1890 Bob Goss bought his father’s farm and returned there to live, working the farm till 1896 when he rented the place and returned to Minneapolis to work at his trade, that of mill wright, for the Pillsbury Milling Co. He had not been here since.

He sold the farm to Otto Filitz about 19012, and the Filitz family continued to lived on the farm. Mr. Goss was made welcome at the old home, staid over night and spent some time in looking over the fields. He visited at the Bob French home and called on a number of former acquaintances while here.

A son, Lee Goss, born while on the farm, is a noted nose and throat specialist in Seattle. An adopted daughters lives with Mr. Goss in Minneapolis. His wife died in 1920.

The old Goss home for many years was a noted wayside inn -- a most popular stopping place for tote teamsters and other travelers going back and forth between down river points and the lumber camps north. It was said that many a teamster would even pull through Neillsville going south after dark to reach Goss’s to stay over night; and coming up would stop there even before night fall in preference to going on to some other tavern. Wide stalls, good hay and dry straw for bedding made the teams comfortable in the barn; and a warm fire, a friendly welcome and good food greeted the travelers in the house. Mrs. Goss was noted up and down the "tote road" for her warm biscuits -- often served with honey; fried chicken also was frequently a part of the bill of fare at the Goss house.

In the midst of this atmosphere of pioneer romance, the visitor of last week grew to manhood and it is little wonder that its memories drew rest cut off