Son of John and Mary Griffin Goss
The following biography was found on the Harrison County, Iowa USGenWeb page. It was posted Jan 2010 by jnjgoss and accessed Aug 2010. http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.iowa.counties.harrison/1459.1/mb.ashx
Curd Goss was born March 19, 1819, in Tennessee, the sixth son of John and Mary. He married Mary Ellen Alexander, probably in McMinn County before 1838.
Curd and Mary Ellen had 11 children: Martha E. (1838), Emily (1840-1854), Samantha (1842), Nancy (1845), William (1847), James (1849), Mary Ellen (1852), John S. (1854), Margaret Jane (1856-1859), Wiley (1858) and Harriet (1860-1861). Martha, Emily (probably), and Samantha were born in Missouri, the next five children in Tennessee, Margaret in Iowa, and Wiley and Harriet in Missouri. There does not appear to be a record of the family from the 1840 census, although my opinion is that they were in Missouri. Curd participated in the Cherokee Removal to Oklahoma during the 1830s, according to information from some of his descendants. That would have taken him through the same part of Missouri where Alvis lived in the late 1830s and where Allen sold land in 1843.
The first reference to the family was in the 1850 census of McMinn County, where they were recorded with the first six children, all shown as born in Tennessee. That record is probably wrong with respect to the first three daughters, Martha, Emily and Samantha, again based on the 1856 Iowa census.
Curd appeared several times in the land records of McMinn County, the first on November 25, 1852, when John Goss Sr. sold 160 acres to Curd for $1600. That same day, John Sr. sold 75 acres to James Goss. On December 23, 1852, John Goss Sr. deeded an additional 280 acres to Curd for an unnamed consideration. Coupled with some January 1852 records when James deeded land on behalf of John Sr. to settle a debt that the father was unable to pay, it appears that the sons remaining in McMinn County bought out their father in the November and December transactions.
Curd appeared again in the McMinn County land records in 1854, the first time in July when Curd bought a tract of less than two acres from his brother, James. Then Curd apparently sold all of his land in McMinn County (the two parcels from John Sr. and the small parcel from James) on September 12, 1854, to Joseph Neil for $4000. These transactions suggested that he was selling out and leaving the area.
In January 1855, Curd bought land in Harrison County, Iowa, just across the county line from Pottawattamie County and within about five miles of where Sherman Goss had moved his family in 1851. Taken together with the September 1854 land sale, it is clear that Curd knew exactly where he was going when he left Tennessee. He did not return to Missouri, where Alvis lived, but moved to Iowa, where Sherman lived.
The 1856 census was apparently the last in which Curd appeared. There is a record of the marriage of Samantha in DeKalb County, Missouri, in March 1860, but Curd's family definitely did not appear there in the 1860 census. It is quite likely that the family was on the move from Missouri to Texas and there is one land record in Grayson County, Texas in January 1860 that shows a lot purchased at a sheriff's sale by "C.W. Goff." There were Goff families there at that time, but no one answering the description of the buyer of that lot.
Curd was hanged at Gainesville, Texas on October 19, 1862, one of 41 men convicted in what appears to have been an unfair trial. The circumstances surrounding the trial are recorded in several accounts of "The Great Hanging of Gainesville" and were the result of some shootings and the fact that those hanged were opposed to secession. Rather than recount that history here, it can be found in several ways through an Internet search. I do have one possible insight to why Curd was in that part of Texas in the first place. One of the jurors, who objected to the way the jury was reaching their determinations of guilt or innocence, was Thomas C. Barrett. Barrett had lived in Texas since 1848 and in the Gainesville area since 1860. He was married first to Martha Alexander in Tennessee in 1833 and moved to Missouri in 1842. Martha died in 1844 and he remarried before the move to Texas. I think it quite possible that Martha Alexander Barrett and Mary Alexander Goss were sisters and that it was a family tie that took Curd's family to Texas in 1860, just as it was a family tie that took them to Iowa in 1855.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
***40 men suspected of Union sympathies were hanged by an extra-legal "Citizens Court," of which the majority were slaveholders. Two other men were shot trying to escape. North Texas (which included Cooke and neighboring counties) was the center of opposition to secession from the Union. The opposition was fueled when the Confederate Conscription Act of April 1862 was enacted with an exemption from the draft for the largest slaveholders. Those who were in opposition formed a Peace Party, whose primary goals were "to provide for the families of those at war, to protect members from Confederate authority, and to restore the Union.
The Confederate Citizens Court was not an established legal authority & the slaveholder jurors alone could condemn a person to death. Most of the men killed during this time, were accused of treason or insurrection, but very few had actually conspired against the Confederacy, and many were innocent of the charges for which they were tried. Each family of a Gainesville Hanging victim has a story that needs to be told and shared.
An article was published in the GALVESTON WEEKLY NEWS in 1880 regarding the above hangings. "EXECUTION AT GAINESVILLE"
Special Telegrams to the Galveston News
Publication date: May 6, 1880
"On the morning of October 1, 1862, Colonel James G. Bourland, who was one of the largest slaveholders in a county, was sent to who were accused of "insurrection or treason"(not signing up to fight the Union) Bourland, along with Colonel William C. Young of the Eleventh Texas Cavalry, then handpicked 12 jurors to serve on a "citizen's court." Seven of the jurors were slaveholders and Bourland mandated that a conviction did not require a unanimous vote, only a majority vote. Seven of those accused men were sentenced to hang, but before the "court" was finished, 14 more were lynched by an angry mob."
It is to be noted:
Confederate Brigadier General Albert Pike, who was in charge of Indian Territory, was implicated as a Unionist and arrested. Although he was later released, he continued to be regarded with suspicion and served the rest of the war in civilian offices.
To be noted:
General Bourland was also accused of other atrocities, but the Confederate Army took no action concerning them. At the end of the war, he obtained a pardon from President Andrew Johnson, but there is no record that he was ever subjected to a Union court martial. He was also acquitted of wrongdoing by a civil court at Gainesville. He died in seclusion, a lonely and broken old man, on Aug. 20, 1879.
The following biography was found on the Harrison County, Iowa USGenWeb page. It was posted Jan 2010 by jnjgoss and accessed Aug 2010. http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.iowa.counties.harrison/1459.1/mb.ashx
Curd Goss was born March 19, 1819, in Tennessee, the sixth son of John and Mary. He married Mary Ellen Alexander, probably in McMinn County before 1838.
Curd and Mary Ellen had 11 children: Martha E. (1838), Emily (1840-1854), Samantha (1842), Nancy (1845), William (1847), James (1849), Mary Ellen (1852), John S. (1854), Margaret Jane (1856-1859), Wiley (1858) and Harriet (1860-1861). Martha, Emily (probably), and Samantha were born in Missouri, the next five children in Tennessee, Margaret in Iowa, and Wiley and Harriet in Missouri. There does not appear to be a record of the family from the 1840 census, although my opinion is that they were in Missouri. Curd participated in the Cherokee Removal to Oklahoma during the 1830s, according to information from some of his descendants. That would have taken him through the same part of Missouri where Alvis lived in the late 1830s and where Allen sold land in 1843.
The first reference to the family was in the 1850 census of McMinn County, where they were recorded with the first six children, all shown as born in Tennessee. That record is probably wrong with respect to the first three daughters, Martha, Emily and Samantha, again based on the 1856 Iowa census.
Curd appeared several times in the land records of McMinn County, the first on November 25, 1852, when John Goss Sr. sold 160 acres to Curd for $1600. That same day, John Sr. sold 75 acres to James Goss. On December 23, 1852, John Goss Sr. deeded an additional 280 acres to Curd for an unnamed consideration. Coupled with some January 1852 records when James deeded land on behalf of John Sr. to settle a debt that the father was unable to pay, it appears that the sons remaining in McMinn County bought out their father in the November and December transactions.
Curd appeared again in the McMinn County land records in 1854, the first time in July when Curd bought a tract of less than two acres from his brother, James. Then Curd apparently sold all of his land in McMinn County (the two parcels from John Sr. and the small parcel from James) on September 12, 1854, to Joseph Neil for $4000. These transactions suggested that he was selling out and leaving the area.
In January 1855, Curd bought land in Harrison County, Iowa, just across the county line from Pottawattamie County and within about five miles of where Sherman Goss had moved his family in 1851. Taken together with the September 1854 land sale, it is clear that Curd knew exactly where he was going when he left Tennessee. He did not return to Missouri, where Alvis lived, but moved to Iowa, where Sherman lived.
The 1856 census was apparently the last in which Curd appeared. There is a record of the marriage of Samantha in DeKalb County, Missouri, in March 1860, but Curd's family definitely did not appear there in the 1860 census. It is quite likely that the family was on the move from Missouri to Texas and there is one land record in Grayson County, Texas in January 1860 that shows a lot purchased at a sheriff's sale by "C.W. Goff." There were Goff families there at that time, but no one answering the description of the buyer of that lot.
Curd was hanged at Gainesville, Texas on October 19, 1862, one of 41 men convicted in what appears to have been an unfair trial. The circumstances surrounding the trial are recorded in several accounts of "The Great Hanging of Gainesville" and were the result of some shootings and the fact that those hanged were opposed to secession. Rather than recount that history here, it can be found in several ways through an Internet search. I do have one possible insight to why Curd was in that part of Texas in the first place. One of the jurors, who objected to the way the jury was reaching their determinations of guilt or innocence, was Thomas C. Barrett. Barrett had lived in Texas since 1848 and in the Gainesville area since 1860. He was married first to Martha Alexander in Tennessee in 1833 and moved to Missouri in 1842. Martha died in 1844 and he remarried before the move to Texas. I think it quite possible that Martha Alexander Barrett and Mary Alexander Goss were sisters and that it was a family tie that took Curd's family to Texas in 1860, just as it was a family tie that took them to Iowa in 1855.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
***40 men suspected of Union sympathies were hanged by an extra-legal "Citizens Court," of which the majority were slaveholders. Two other men were shot trying to escape. North Texas (which included Cooke and neighboring counties) was the center of opposition to secession from the Union. The opposition was fueled when the Confederate Conscription Act of April 1862 was enacted with an exemption from the draft for the largest slaveholders. Those who were in opposition formed a Peace Party, whose primary goals were "to provide for the families of those at war, to protect members from Confederate authority, and to restore the Union.
The Confederate Citizens Court was not an established legal authority & the slaveholder jurors alone could condemn a person to death. Most of the men killed during this time, were accused of treason or insurrection, but very few had actually conspired against the Confederacy, and many were innocent of the charges for which they were tried. Each family of a Gainesville Hanging victim has a story that needs to be told and shared.
An article was published in the GALVESTON WEEKLY NEWS in 1880 regarding the above hangings. "EXECUTION AT GAINESVILLE"
Special Telegrams to the Galveston News
Publication date: May 6, 1880
"On the morning of October 1, 1862, Colonel James G. Bourland, who was one of the largest slaveholders in a county, was sent to who were accused of "insurrection or treason"(not signing up to fight the Union) Bourland, along with Colonel William C. Young of the Eleventh Texas Cavalry, then handpicked 12 jurors to serve on a "citizen's court." Seven of the jurors were slaveholders and Bourland mandated that a conviction did not require a unanimous vote, only a majority vote. Seven of those accused men were sentenced to hang, but before the "court" was finished, 14 more were lynched by an angry mob."
It is to be noted:
Confederate Brigadier General Albert Pike, who was in charge of Indian Territory, was implicated as a Unionist and arrested. Although he was later released, he continued to be regarded with suspicion and served the rest of the war in civilian offices.
To be noted:
General Bourland was also accused of other atrocities, but the Confederate Army took no action concerning them. At the end of the war, he obtained a pardon from President Andrew Johnson, but there is no record that he was ever subjected to a Union court martial. He was also acquitted of wrongdoing by a civil court at Gainesville. He died in seclusion, a lonely and broken old man, on Aug. 20, 1879.
Son of John and Mary Griffin Goss
The following biography was found on the Harrison County, Iowa USGenWeb page. It was posted Jan 2010 by jnjgoss and accessed Aug 2010. http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.iowa.counties.harrison/1459.1/mb.ashx
Curd Goss was born March 19, 1819, in Tennessee, the sixth son of John and Mary. He married Mary Ellen Alexander, probably in McMinn County before 1838.
Curd and Mary Ellen had 11 children: Martha E. (1838), Emily (1840-1854), Samantha (1842), Nancy (1845), William (1847), James (1849), Mary Ellen (1852), John S. (1854), Margaret Jane (1856-1859), Wiley (1858) and Harriet (1860-1861). Martha, Emily (probably), and Samantha were born in Missouri, the next five children in Tennessee, Margaret in Iowa, and Wiley and Harriet in Missouri. There does not appear to be a record of the family from the 1840 census, although my opinion is that they were in Missouri. Curd participated in the Cherokee Removal to Oklahoma during the 1830s, according to information from some of his descendants. That would have taken him through the same part of Missouri where Alvis lived in the late 1830s and where Allen sold land in 1843.
The first reference to the family was in the 1850 census of McMinn County, where they were recorded with the first six children, all shown as born in Tennessee. That record is probably wrong with respect to the first three daughters, Martha, Emily and Samantha, again based on the 1856 Iowa census.
Curd appeared several times in the land records of McMinn County, the first on November 25, 1852, when John Goss Sr. sold 160 acres to Curd for $1600. That same day, John Sr. sold 75 acres to James Goss. On December 23, 1852, John Goss Sr. deeded an additional 280 acres to Curd for an unnamed consideration. Coupled with some January 1852 records when James deeded land on behalf of John Sr. to settle a debt that the father was unable to pay, it appears that the sons remaining in McMinn County bought out their father in the November and December transactions.
Curd appeared again in the McMinn County land records in 1854, the first time in July when Curd bought a tract of less than two acres from his brother, James. Then Curd apparently sold all of his land in McMinn County (the two parcels from John Sr. and the small parcel from James) on September 12, 1854, to Joseph Neil for $4000. These transactions suggested that he was selling out and leaving the area.
In January 1855, Curd bought land in Harrison County, Iowa, just across the county line from Pottawattamie County and within about five miles of where Sherman Goss had moved his family in 1851. Taken together with the September 1854 land sale, it is clear that Curd knew exactly where he was going when he left Tennessee. He did not return to Missouri, where Alvis lived, but moved to Iowa, where Sherman lived.
The 1856 census was apparently the last in which Curd appeared. There is a record of the marriage of Samantha in DeKalb County, Missouri, in March 1860, but Curd's family definitely did not appear there in the 1860 census. It is quite likely that the family was on the move from Missouri to Texas and there is one land record in Grayson County, Texas in January 1860 that shows a lot purchased at a sheriff's sale by "C.W. Goff." There were Goff families there at that time, but no one answering the description of the buyer of that lot.
Curd was hanged at Gainesville, Texas on October 19, 1862, one of 41 men convicted in what appears to have been an unfair trial. The circumstances surrounding the trial are recorded in several accounts of "The Great Hanging of Gainesville" and were the result of some shootings and the fact that those hanged were opposed to secession. Rather than recount that history here, it can be found in several ways through an Internet search. I do have one possible insight to why Curd was in that part of Texas in the first place. One of the jurors, who objected to the way the jury was reaching their determinations of guilt or innocence, was Thomas C. Barrett. Barrett had lived in Texas since 1848 and in the Gainesville area since 1860. He was married first to Martha Alexander in Tennessee in 1833 and moved to Missouri in 1842. Martha died in 1844 and he remarried before the move to Texas. I think it quite possible that Martha Alexander Barrett and Mary Alexander Goss were sisters and that it was a family tie that took Curd's family to Texas in 1860, just as it was a family tie that took them to Iowa in 1855.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
***40 men suspected of Union sympathies were hanged by an extra-legal "Citizens Court," of which the majority were slaveholders. Two other men were shot trying to escape. North Texas (which included Cooke and neighboring counties) was the center of opposition to secession from the Union. The opposition was fueled when the Confederate Conscription Act of April 1862 was enacted with an exemption from the draft for the largest slaveholders. Those who were in opposition formed a Peace Party, whose primary goals were "to provide for the families of those at war, to protect members from Confederate authority, and to restore the Union.
The Confederate Citizens Court was not an established legal authority & the slaveholder jurors alone could condemn a person to death. Most of the men killed during this time, were accused of treason or insurrection, but very few had actually conspired against the Confederacy, and many were innocent of the charges for which they were tried. Each family of a Gainesville Hanging victim has a story that needs to be told and shared.
An article was published in the GALVESTON WEEKLY NEWS in 1880 regarding the above hangings. "EXECUTION AT GAINESVILLE"
Special Telegrams to the Galveston News
Publication date: May 6, 1880
"On the morning of October 1, 1862, Colonel James G. Bourland, who was one of the largest slaveholders in a county, was sent to who were accused of "insurrection or treason"(not signing up to fight the Union) Bourland, along with Colonel William C. Young of the Eleventh Texas Cavalry, then handpicked 12 jurors to serve on a "citizen's court." Seven of the jurors were slaveholders and Bourland mandated that a conviction did not require a unanimous vote, only a majority vote. Seven of those accused men were sentenced to hang, but before the "court" was finished, 14 more were lynched by an angry mob."
It is to be noted:
Confederate Brigadier General Albert Pike, who was in charge of Indian Territory, was implicated as a Unionist and arrested. Although he was later released, he continued to be regarded with suspicion and served the rest of the war in civilian offices.
To be noted:
General Bourland was also accused of other atrocities, but the Confederate Army took no action concerning them. At the end of the war, he obtained a pardon from President Andrew Johnson, but there is no record that he was ever subjected to a Union court martial. He was also acquitted of wrongdoing by a civil court at Gainesville. He died in seclusion, a lonely and broken old man, on Aug. 20, 1879.
The following biography was found on the Harrison County, Iowa USGenWeb page. It was posted Jan 2010 by jnjgoss and accessed Aug 2010. http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.iowa.counties.harrison/1459.1/mb.ashx
Curd Goss was born March 19, 1819, in Tennessee, the sixth son of John and Mary. He married Mary Ellen Alexander, probably in McMinn County before 1838.
Curd and Mary Ellen had 11 children: Martha E. (1838), Emily (1840-1854), Samantha (1842), Nancy (1845), William (1847), James (1849), Mary Ellen (1852), John S. (1854), Margaret Jane (1856-1859), Wiley (1858) and Harriet (1860-1861). Martha, Emily (probably), and Samantha were born in Missouri, the next five children in Tennessee, Margaret in Iowa, and Wiley and Harriet in Missouri. There does not appear to be a record of the family from the 1840 census, although my opinion is that they were in Missouri. Curd participated in the Cherokee Removal to Oklahoma during the 1830s, according to information from some of his descendants. That would have taken him through the same part of Missouri where Alvis lived in the late 1830s and where Allen sold land in 1843.
The first reference to the family was in the 1850 census of McMinn County, where they were recorded with the first six children, all shown as born in Tennessee. That record is probably wrong with respect to the first three daughters, Martha, Emily and Samantha, again based on the 1856 Iowa census.
Curd appeared several times in the land records of McMinn County, the first on November 25, 1852, when John Goss Sr. sold 160 acres to Curd for $1600. That same day, John Sr. sold 75 acres to James Goss. On December 23, 1852, John Goss Sr. deeded an additional 280 acres to Curd for an unnamed consideration. Coupled with some January 1852 records when James deeded land on behalf of John Sr. to settle a debt that the father was unable to pay, it appears that the sons remaining in McMinn County bought out their father in the November and December transactions.
Curd appeared again in the McMinn County land records in 1854, the first time in July when Curd bought a tract of less than two acres from his brother, James. Then Curd apparently sold all of his land in McMinn County (the two parcels from John Sr. and the small parcel from James) on September 12, 1854, to Joseph Neil for $4000. These transactions suggested that he was selling out and leaving the area.
In January 1855, Curd bought land in Harrison County, Iowa, just across the county line from Pottawattamie County and within about five miles of where Sherman Goss had moved his family in 1851. Taken together with the September 1854 land sale, it is clear that Curd knew exactly where he was going when he left Tennessee. He did not return to Missouri, where Alvis lived, but moved to Iowa, where Sherman lived.
The 1856 census was apparently the last in which Curd appeared. There is a record of the marriage of Samantha in DeKalb County, Missouri, in March 1860, but Curd's family definitely did not appear there in the 1860 census. It is quite likely that the family was on the move from Missouri to Texas and there is one land record in Grayson County, Texas in January 1860 that shows a lot purchased at a sheriff's sale by "C.W. Goff." There were Goff families there at that time, but no one answering the description of the buyer of that lot.
Curd was hanged at Gainesville, Texas on October 19, 1862, one of 41 men convicted in what appears to have been an unfair trial. The circumstances surrounding the trial are recorded in several accounts of "The Great Hanging of Gainesville" and were the result of some shootings and the fact that those hanged were opposed to secession. Rather than recount that history here, it can be found in several ways through an Internet search. I do have one possible insight to why Curd was in that part of Texas in the first place. One of the jurors, who objected to the way the jury was reaching their determinations of guilt or innocence, was Thomas C. Barrett. Barrett had lived in Texas since 1848 and in the Gainesville area since 1860. He was married first to Martha Alexander in Tennessee in 1833 and moved to Missouri in 1842. Martha died in 1844 and he remarried before the move to Texas. I think it quite possible that Martha Alexander Barrett and Mary Alexander Goss were sisters and that it was a family tie that took Curd's family to Texas in 1860, just as it was a family tie that took them to Iowa in 1855.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
***40 men suspected of Union sympathies were hanged by an extra-legal "Citizens Court," of which the majority were slaveholders. Two other men were shot trying to escape. North Texas (which included Cooke and neighboring counties) was the center of opposition to secession from the Union. The opposition was fueled when the Confederate Conscription Act of April 1862 was enacted with an exemption from the draft for the largest slaveholders. Those who were in opposition formed a Peace Party, whose primary goals were "to provide for the families of those at war, to protect members from Confederate authority, and to restore the Union.
The Confederate Citizens Court was not an established legal authority & the slaveholder jurors alone could condemn a person to death. Most of the men killed during this time, were accused of treason or insurrection, but very few had actually conspired against the Confederacy, and many were innocent of the charges for which they were tried. Each family of a Gainesville Hanging victim has a story that needs to be told and shared.
An article was published in the GALVESTON WEEKLY NEWS in 1880 regarding the above hangings. "EXECUTION AT GAINESVILLE"
Special Telegrams to the Galveston News
Publication date: May 6, 1880
"On the morning of October 1, 1862, Colonel James G. Bourland, who was one of the largest slaveholders in a county, was sent to who were accused of "insurrection or treason"(not signing up to fight the Union) Bourland, along with Colonel William C. Young of the Eleventh Texas Cavalry, then handpicked 12 jurors to serve on a "citizen's court." Seven of the jurors were slaveholders and Bourland mandated that a conviction did not require a unanimous vote, only a majority vote. Seven of those accused men were sentenced to hang, but before the "court" was finished, 14 more were lynched by an angry mob."
It is to be noted:
Confederate Brigadier General Albert Pike, who was in charge of Indian Territory, was implicated as a Unionist and arrested. Although he was later released, he continued to be regarded with suspicion and served the rest of the war in civilian offices.
To be noted:
General Bourland was also accused of other atrocities, but the Confederate Army took no action concerning them. At the end of the war, he obtained a pardon from President Andrew Johnson, but there is no record that he was ever subjected to a Union court martial. He was also acquitted of wrongdoing by a civil court at Gainesville. He died in seclusion, a lonely and broken old man, on Aug. 20, 1879.
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