Alfred T . Goshorn Alfred Traber Goshorn ( July 15 , 1833 – 1902 ) was a Cincinnati , Ohio businessman and booster who served as Director - General of the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia . That was the first world ' s fair in the United States and so resounding a success that Queen Victoria knighted Goshorn and the crowned heads of Europe weighed him down in medals . Biography . Goshorn was born 1833 on the family homestead in Cincinnati . He graduated from Marietta College in 1854 and earned a law degree three years later . During the Civil War he enlisted in Company F , 137th Ohio Infantry , a 100 days service regiment , serving as captain . After the hostilities he owned a paint company and led the Cincinnati City Council for two years . Baseball . " New York style " baseball boomed in the United States after the end of the Civil War . Scattered clubs from as far away as Fort Leavenworth , Kansas sent delegates to the meeting of the game ' s national association in December 1865 , roughly tripling membership from 30 to 90 . The " Queen City of the West , " Cincinnati was not represented , but at least two baseball clubs were formally constituted that season and one established ballclub officially adopted the New York game . Alfred Goshorn was the first president of the Cincinnati Base Ball Club , established July 23 , 1866 . The Cincinnati club would rise to the pinnacle as parent of the first professional baseball team , the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings . Goshorn served until that April , just before the opening of the famous season . So he presided over three years of evolution from strictly amateur local membership and noncommercial play , ending in full professionalism . Affiliating with the Union Cricket Club before its second season , the club thereby arranged to share playing grounds and the services of " club pro " Harry Wright . The two built a grandstand and modern enclosure , putting competitive matches on a commercial basis and making Union Grounds the physical center of cricket and baseball in Cincinnati ( Ellard [ 1908 ] ) . Expositions and civic leadership . For two decades beginning in 1870 , Goshorn organized the Cincinnati Industrial Expositions , public exhibitions of the arts and industry of Cincinnati people and companies . Or so it began , but the local version grew to regional and occasionally national scope . " Goshorn became world famous for the expositions " according to the Ohio Historical Society ( 2005 ) . When planning for the Centennial Exposition began in 1873 , Goshorn was appointed delegate from Ohio . Recognizing his achievement with the Cincinnati expos , the other delegates elected him Director - General . The world ' s fair was a great success , attracting ten million visitors including thousands from Europe . Dignitaries celebrated the Director - General and Philadelphia presented him with hundreds of books , pamphlets , and photographs that had been on display , which now compose " Goshorn ' s Centennial Collection " at the Cincinnati Historical Society ( Tolzmann n . d . ) . " General Goshorn " returned to Cincinnati life as a civic leader , thereafter organizing the Cincinnati Art Museum as well as continuing the Cincinnati Expositions . He died in 1902 and his bequest to Marietta College financed A . T . Goshorn Gymnasium , opened in 1903 .