Orcemous Gossard, a very successful hardware merchant at Oswego, Labette county, was born in Fayette county, Ohio, Dec. 19, 1858. His parents were Abraham and Elizabeth (Holloway) Gossard, both of whom were natives of Ohio, the father born in Fayette county and the mother in Ross county. They came West in 1876 and settled on a farm in Labette county, Kansas, where the father died in 1879, aged forty-one years. The mother is still living, a highly respected resident of Labette county. She bore her husband seven sons and two daughters. Mr. Gossard was eighteen years of age when his parents came to Kansas. He had but the advantages of the common schools for an education, and was reared on a farm, where he learned those valuable lessons of toil and perseverance which have so greatly contributed to his success as a merchant. When twenty-two years of age Mr. Gossard became a clerk in a hardware store at Oswego. He was a poor young man and must needs apply himself if he was to succeed in life. With a determination to become the best hardware clerk and the leading hardware merchant in Oswego, he resolved to sell more each day than his employer, and it is said that this he accomplished. After clerking for some time he and a partner engaged in the hardware business at Hartland, Kan., where he remained five years, gaining a valuable experience which was largely to form the foundation for his future success as a hardware merchant at Oswego. In March, 1880 he began business in Oswego, where he has established a large and profitable trade in a general line of hardware and farm implements. He has long since held the reputation of a "square dealer" and his popular and catching advertising phrase has been and is "on Gossard's plan," a familiar phrase among hundreds of appreciating customers. Being successful in business Mr. Gossard has accumulated much valuable property and ranks among the well-to-do business men of Labette county.

In politics Mr. Gossard has been and is a leading Republican and an active worker in his party. He has served as both secretary and chairman of the Labette county Republican central committee with universal satisfaction to his party in the county. Fraternally he is a Knight of Pythias, and in church faith a Methodist. In 1893 Mr. Gossard married Miss Nellie Harrison, of Oswego. She died in 1907 leaving three children—Mary Elizabeth, Agnes De Mar and Edgar Harrison. In 1910 Mr. Gossard married a second time, when Miss Anna B. Baty became his wife.