Baseball Pioneer. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1833, he graduated from Marietta College in 1854 and went on to earn a degree at the Cincinnati Law School in 1857. He also ventured into politics and served two terms as the head of the Cincinnati City Council. A few years after the Civil War started he left his law practice to enlist as a Captain in the Union Army with Company C of the 137th Ohio National Guard Infantry. He was promoted to the rank of Major before he was mustered out in 1864. After the war was over, he endeavored in business as the owner of a paint company in Cincinnati. He was also a contributing benefactor to the Cincinnati Art Museum and became its first director. He enjoyed celebrity status for his role as the first president of the Cincinnati Base Ball Club (sic) in 1866. The amateur team was known to have paid its players and by 1869 the club boldly announced that it was fielding an all-salary professional baseball team, the first ever. They toured the country drawing large crowds in the wake of baseball's growing popularity and soon became the Cincinnati Red Stockings (predecessor of the Cincinnati Reds). Goshorn stepped down in 1869 and elaborated upon his fame in a different direction organizing several industrial expositions in Cincinnati. He then served as the Director-General of the International Centennial Exposition. The event took place at Philadelphia attracting over ten million visitors and came to be known as the First World's Fair. The grand success of the event culminated to his being dubbed a knight by England's Queen Victoria. Several other European monarchs bestowed awards and medals upon him. During the following years, he continued to earn notoriety staging expositions across the country. Cincinnatians referred to him as "General Goshorn" and "Sir Alfred". He died of paralysis in Cincinnati in 1902. He was 68 years old.