John David Bosch was born at Neu-St. Johann, Canton St.
Gall, Switzerland, on August 1, 1855. His parents were Michael Johann Bosch and
Maria Biegmann; he had three brothers and three sisters, and was his parents'
fifth child. When he was nine, his mother died, and he was then brought up by
his oldest sister, whom he loved all his life. After attending elementary and
“repletitionary" school in Neu-St. Johann, he left Switzerland with a
sister and her husband (the Zuberbuhlers), arrived in America in 1879, and went
to Amboy, Nebraska where on arrival the Zuberbuhlers purchased a farm. He
practised his trade of cooper. "helped with the building of the railroad,
and also farmed." He was in Los Angeles, California between 1884 and 1889,
and became a citizen of the United States in Los Angeles County in 1887, the
document also being registered in Sonoma County in 1892. He married Kathe Krieg
in '85 or '86, the marriage ending in divorce around '89. It was about this
period that he went to Germany, France and Spain to study winemaking. After
holding various good positions in the Valley of the Moon, he purchased the
thirty-five acres constituting the original extent of his Geyserville property
on October 26, 1901 from Emily B. Smith of Geyserville.
In 1905, John became a Baha'i, his teachers being Mrs.
Beckwith, Mrs. Goodall, Mrs. Cooper and Thornton Chase. John was delegate from
California and Honolulu to the first Baha'i Temple Unity Convention, Chicago,
March 21, 1906. In April, 1912, when superintendent of the Northern Sonoma
County Wineries, he went East to be with ‘Abdu’l-Baha, and on his return was
instrumental in appealing to the Master to visit the West. He was Thornton
Chase's literary executor. On January 19, 1914 he married Louise Sophie Stapfer
of Zurich, Switzerland, in San Francisco. In 1920, with Louise, he left for
Tahiti in March, pioneering there and leaving in September. In November, 1921,
he and Louise were present in Haifa at the time of the Master's passing.
Appointed by the National Spiritual Assembly with two other to locate a place
for thee establishment of a center "along the lines of Green Acre"
John offered his property for this purpose, the institution beginning its
functions in 1927. From this period on, he continued to serve in many ways
until his long, final illness. He passed away July 22, 1946, and was buried in
Olive Hill cemetery, Geyserville, following a befitting memorial service held
July 24 in the Baha’i Hall, Geyserville School. Under the auspices of the
National Spiritual Assembly, memorial service was also held for him in the
Baha'i House of Worship, November 24. His tomb is covered with a long plaque
(the work of John Quinn) made of hammered bronze and bearing the Greatest Name.
The underbrush has all been cleared away, exposing a whole new range of
mountains, the western mountains that shut Geyserville off from the sea. When
we saw the place recently, we knew we were watching one of the loveliest views
in the world. It was a soft autumn day, "The mountains seem so near,"
Louise said dreamily. "That means rain."
- Marzieh Gail (Baha’i News July, 1974)
