38                          HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

chased a farm and also established a tannery, both of which he success-
fully managed for a number of years. Disposing of all his Ohio interests,
he came with his family, then consisting of himself, a son and a daughter.
to Clay county, Indiana, and settled in Bellaire, where, in partnership
with his son George V., he engaged in mercantile pursuits during the
remainder of his active life. He spent his last years on the farm of this
son, George, in Harrison township, dying when upward of sixty-three
years old. He married Jane Robinson, a daughter of Alexander Robin-
son. She died in middle life in Ohio, leaving four children, namely
Denny, Robert R. (father of Benjamin F.), George V. and Mary Jane.
    Robert R. Goshorn was born in Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania,
November 7, 1833, came with his parents to Ohio at the age of two years,
and was there brought up and married. Acquiring a good common
school education when young, he began his career as a teacher in Ohio
when but seventeen years of age. When eighteen years old he married,
and with his young wife and her parents came to Owen county, Indiana.
Shortly after his arrival in Marion township, he bought a tract of tim-
bered land upon which was a log house, the only improvement made
on the place. In this he resided until after the birth of his three older
children. He continued his professional duties. teaching nine terms of
school in Owen county, in the meantime clearing his land and tilling
the soil with great success. He added to his landed possessions by pur-
chase at different times until be had a farm of two hundred and twenty
acres, well improved with a substantial set of buildings, he being among
the first in Marion township to erect a frame house and barn, he was
enterprising and progressive in his methods and always one of the first
to try new machinery invented for the purpose of lessening the work of
the farmer. He has now in his possession the first lamp in which he
burned kerosene oil, it being one of the first if not the pioneer lamp of
the kind in Owen county. He still lives in that county, retired from
active pursuits, enjoying to the utmost the fruits of his earlier years of
toil. For about fifty years he has been a member of the Church of the
Brethren, in which he has served faithfully in almost every official capac-
ity and is now filling the office of elder. He married in Tuscarawas
county, Ohio, October 7, Julia Ann Sommers, who was born in
Fayette county, Pennsylvania, April 22, 1828, daughter of Jacob Sommers
and granddaughter of Michael and Catherine Sommers, natives of Ger-
many. Jacob Sommers, an only child of Michael and Catherine Sommers,
was a soldier in the war of 1812, enlisting when but eighteen years of
age. Some time after his marriage he imigrated to Ohio and, after living
in Tuscarawas county a number of years, came thence to Owen county,
Indiana, locating in Marion township, where he cleared and improved
the farm on which he resided until his death at the age of seventy-seven
years and six months. The maiden name of his wife was Martha Aucer-
man. To them were born ten daughters and three sons, all of whom
were brought up to mature age and all of whom married and raised
families, with the exception of their son Benjamin, who died from
injuries received in felling a tree while yet single. At the time of their
deaths their descendants numbered considerably over one hundred. The
children born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Robert R. Goshorn were as
follows: Lydia Jane, wife of John Fair; Josiah S.; Benjamin F., the
special subject of this sketch; George V. ; Flora Alice, who married Jesse
Benham; Ezra N.; Martha Etta, wife of George Kitch; and Martin R.