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Continuing The Legacy: To Bee or Not to Be?!
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Continuing The Legacy: To Bee or Not to Be?!
I can relate to the A families legacy being sold story that you featured a few days ago on the LifeDoneFree YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehY8ubbJ0uw).
I would like to share a bit of our families’ legacy(s).
On my mom’s side, my great-great grandpa Edward Bosse came over from Germany to the East Coast in 1880 with his wife & 3 young kids. He left them there for a few years, to head out West to prepare them for a better life. He brought them out to the Mother Lode of California’s Gold Country around 1882, after saving up capital by bustin-ass hand-making roof shingles.
Upon arrival, his eldest child (my Great Grandpa) Henry Bosse, (then 12yrs old) had a VISION and saw his FUTURE: He PROCLAIMED he would one day OWN THAT LAND that his dad worked so hard on just to give his family a chance in the New Land of the Free. He realized his Dream & Mission: by the time Henry was 30, he BUILT UP an impressive 70 acre Homestead Ranch in Rail Road Flat, and later married his sweetheart Louise from an adjacent town. The ore mines were dry on the ranch, but the Gold that he struck was in the form of beef Cattle and Sierra Timberlands (lumber). The estate later grew to almost 5000 ACRES of prime South Fork Mokelumne River frontage, amidst the rolling Sierra Nevada foothills in the “badlands” of Calaveras (“skull) County, temporary home to author Mark Twain, bandit Black Bart, and other notorious, nefarious, and other notable figures of the era.
Henry & Louise Bosse raised six children up on the ranch, including my grandmother Ruth Emma Bosse Freeman, her youngest sister Rosemary Faulkner, and oldest brother Harry who stayed on the country estate to continue raising cattle until the Bosse Ranch was eventually sold in 1982, when the legacy of the 100-yr old sadly came to an end. Since that time, the estate property has turned over TWICE; the last listing (Sotheby’s $30M) a few years ago eventually closed at USD $21M
Upon pondering today, if I had the opportunity to buy back the family estate, would I do so?
Probably not – my Vision & Mission took a different path, which brought me to a new homecoming 20 years ago to my father’s homeland in The Philippine Islands. This calling had a different twist: Re-Building my other grandmother’s (my dad’s mom) modest but failing estate. With a Freeman namesake, it’s a big challenge to Live up to. It’s also been a rough & dirty job – but someone has to do it!
Fortunately, my step-mother still owns a 500 acre estate farm out in Western Kansas, passed down from her mom’s (Melba Koch) German ancestors. Great Grandpa was an officer in the German Army during the Great War. Afterwards, the Koch family migrated to the US, eventually settling in Central Kansas in the early 1900’s. Later, the small Burns family farm in Conway (McPherson Co.) was sold after grandpa Virgil passed away back in 1998. Afterwards, grandma Melba moved out West to join my folks in NorCal.
Currently, my folks and youngest sibling reside in Texas, the rest of my siblings staying out in Commie-fornia, and myself way out on the other side of the Big Pond, what will the become of that particular Midwest American legacy?
We shall see . . .
Edward & Henry Bosse Family history:
https://www.calaverasenterprise.com/news/article_0480ce6c-71b7-11e3-9999-001a4bcf887a.html
Bosse Ranch. Calaveras County, CA:
https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article257562333.html
https://www.landwatch.com/calaveras-county-california-recreational-property-for-sale/pid/410749279
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This discussion was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by
Loco-PhilNomad.
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This discussion was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by
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2 Replies
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wow, what a great story. I pray that your family’s legacy continues. thank you for sharing.
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You’re Welcome! I Will Keep On, Keepin On and Fightin’ The Good Fight. Our Legacy is only as good as Preparing The Ones To Continue It when we are all gone . . .
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