August Kloss has been a resident of the state of California for the past thirty-five years, so that he is thoroughly identified with its civic and social activities, and has taken hold of the opportunities afforded in industrial affairs with such excellent success that he is ranked among the most substantial and prosperous men of his locality. He resides at Franklin, Sacramento county, and has lived there since 1878. His fine ranch contains two hundred and forty acres of land, most of which is devoted to farming and stock-raising, but he also makes grape culture a very important part of his enterprise, having twenty-one acres in vineyard. Besides his success in material affairs, he has also manifested the qualities of civic responsibility and public spirit which are the mainstays of social and political development, and his integrity and high character have been maintained paramount in all the relations of a busy life.

Mr. Kloss was born in Hanover, Germany, December 3, 1845, a son of Conrad and Wilhelmina (Osterhaga) Kloss, also native Hanoverians. Reared in his native country and receiving a fair education in his native tongue, he left his fatherland when he was twenty-five years old and arrived in this state in the spring of 1870, locating in Colusa county, where he was employed for a time on a farm. In the spring of 1873 he moved to the city of Sacramento, and lived there until 1878, since which time he has been in Franklin. For a number of years he has served as a member, and for some time as clerk, of the board of trustees of the Franklin school district, and at the present writing and for some years past he has been a member of the board of trustees of the Elk Grove Union high school. Fraternally he is affiliated with Schiller Lodge No. 105, I. O. O. F., at Sacramento, and in religion he is a Lutheran. He votes the Republican ticket as a rule, but maintains an independent attitude on most political questions.

November 1, 1874, Mr. Kloss wa married to Miss Amelia Rott, who was born in St. Louis, Missouri. They have four children, Edward C., Gustav A., August H. and Emma W.

Source: History of the New California - Its Resources and People, Volume II

The Lewis Publishing Company - 1905
Edited by Leigh H. Irvine