He was one of the earliest immigrants to the Cincinnati area, where he was named a judge and was elected to the territorial legislature.
[8] Goforth was among the earliest settlers in Southwest Ohio, when he settled at Columbia, now a neighborhood of Cincinnati, in the Northwest Territory in early 1789.
To that end, he along with Thomas Goudy, David Zeigler, Robert McClure, Aaron Caldwell, William McMillan and Robert Benham formed a Committee of Correspondence in 1797 to share this desire with other counties in the Northwest Territory.
112, titled "An Act giving a right of pre-emption to certain persons who have contracted with John Cleves Symmes, or his associates, for lands lying between the Miami rivers, in the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio" Section 4 of this act called for the President to appoint two commissioners to "ascertain the rights of persons claiming the benefits of this act.
[13] In 1802, Goforth ran as a Democratic-Republican to be a delegate to the convention that would draft a constitution for the proposed state of Ohio.
1, 1731: Emigrated to Ohio in 1788: Assisted in forming her Constitution and was one of her first territorial judges: An officer in the Revolutionary War.