Daniel Goff
Information comes from research by Hillary Delaney, Librarian at the Boone County Public Library.
FIRST FREE MAN OF COLOR IN CAMPBELL COUNTY, A PIONEER
Daniel Goff was born June1754 in Chesterfield County, Virginia, to free African American parents. He and his brothers, Daniel and David Goff fought in the revolutionary war. According to his pension application, Daniel enlisted in the Army of the United States in the year 1777, in the county of Chesterfield, state of Virginia where he then lived with James Harris, and served in the 15th Virginia regiment for three years & served out the time of his enlistment. After serving under Captain Harris, a part of the time, he was put under Captain Thomas Willis, & served under him apart of the time. When the troops with which he was, marched for the south was under a Captain Dandridge. He was first marched to Williamsburg Va. Soon after marched to the Northward in guarding some wagons to Lancaster. Then went to Valley Forge & joined the Army there under General William Woodford & A Major Gustavus Brown.
Goff went to New Jersey & the North and was in the battle of Monmouth (28 June 1778) after which he served for three years. An affidavit of James Taylor on Newport was made 4 February 1832 and presented at the Boone County Kentucky Court. He stated that he was acquainted with Goff for upwards of Forty years. He first met him in 1793 at which time he was living with Major David Leitch in Campbell County Kentucky. After David died in 1794, Goff then came to live with Taylor as his gardener and laborer. He lived with Taylor for about twenty years.
One of Goff's brothers, David, served under General Lawson, (David Leitch was Lawson's Aide de Camp) so that may be the connection. We assumed that he came to Kentucky either with Leitch or shortly after, but we think he knew him prior to living here. Leitch was in Manchester (Chesterfield County) VA at one point, and Goff lived there as well. Unfortunately the records just are so inconsistent for Goff in both Boone and Campbell. We see Goff in a tax list in 1805 in Campbell, but nothing else until he appears as a tick mark on the 1830 census (at Alexander Marshall's) and then in 1840, his name appears on the census as a veteran, living with Alexander Marshall. Another mystery we have yet to solve for him is the question of why he went to Marshall's? Their connection is not clear, as the Marshall family is hard to trace. There were two Alexander Marshalls in Mason County in 1810, and we know which one is the one that came here, but back further than that, I'm not certain.
Taylor helped Goff apply for his pension for his service as a free man of color in the Revolutionary War. Daniel Goff died in Boone County in 1843 as his pension stopped at that time. He was buried in the Marshall Cemetery and a marker for his service is placed there.
Daniel Goff Article by Hillary Delaney