HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY                         39
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Goshin the mother of the family died at the family homestead in
Owen county, October 2, 1899, at the age of seventy-one years, five
months and ten days.
     Benjamin F. Goshorn received his elementary education in the public
schools of Owen county, after which he attended the Lancaster Sormal
School, where he had as classmates Hon. Robert J. Aley, Hon, Samuel
Ralston, Professor Benjamin Wisely, Dr. Robert McKelvay, Josiah
Goshorn (now a banker in Clay City, Indiana), Dr. K. B. Kelly, Professor
 William Hoffman, W. H. Chillson, and others of such prominence
and influence. He subsequently continued his studies at the State Normal
School in Terre Haute, and at the age of twenty years embarked in life
as a teacher, teaching sixteen hundred and seventy days in Clay and
Owen counties. During this time, with characteristic enterprise, Mr.
Goshorn was employed for four vears in mercantile business at Coal City.
In November, 1897, he purchased the office fixtures and good will of the
Clay City Denmocrat, which he has since published with marked ability
and success, making it one of the leading journals of Clay county. He is
also interested in agricultural progress, devoting a part of his time to the
care and management of his farm, which is located at Danville Crossing,
Harrison township.
     On October 1, 1882, Mr. Goshom married Miss Ida E. Smith, who
was born in Worthington, Greene county, Indiana, August 21, 1862,
daughter of James R. Smith. Her grandfather, John Smith, was born
in Kentucky, but was brought up in Virginia. When a young man he
removed to Ohio, whence in 1839 he came to Indiana, settling in Owen
countv. A few years later he again traveled westward, going to Marshall
county, Iowa, where he was a pioneer settler. Taking up land, he im-
proved a farm on which he lived and labored successfully until his death.
He married Hester Metcalf, who was of New England birth, being the
daughter of James Metcalf, who spent his last years in Ohio. James R.
Smith was eighteen years of age when he came with the family to Owen
county, Indiana, and two years later he began to learn the carpenter's
trade at Old Point Commerce, Greene county. He subsequently worked
at his trade for four years in Lafayette, after which he settled in Jeffer-
son township on a tract of timber land which had been presented to his
wife by her father. Moving into the little log cabin which stood upon
the place, he occupied it for a few years and then built a good frame
house. He cleared sixty or more acres of the land and lived there about
thirty years, when he sold the farm and settled in Harrison township,
Clay county, and for the past fifteen years has resided in Middlebury. He
married Susan Amelia.Heaton, who was born in Owen county, Indiana, a
daughter of Isaac and Jane (Kelley) Heaton, who died shortly after their
removal to Clay county. Isaac Heaton, a native of Connecticut, was one
of the pioneer settlers of Owen county, clearing and improving a home-
stead near what is now Farmers, where he subsequently resided until his
death. He was graduated from the first class of the Indiana State Uni-
versity, was a man of prominence in public affairs, and for a number of
years served as judge. Mr. and Mrs. Goshorn are the parents of five
children: Earl R., who married Mabel Blough and has one son, Wil-
lard B.; Effie A., wife of Charles E. Kitch; Blanche M.; Ross R. and
Ruth L. Goshorn. Mr. Goshorn and family are members of the Church
of the Brethren, with which he united when seventeen years old and in
which he has been a minister for nearly a quarter of a century