George Hammond Daugherty, born April 1 1794 near Milton, Pennsylvania, learned the saddle-making trade and followed it until the Dearborn wagon was put on the market, and he said any shoemaker could then make harness quit the business. After Hull surrendered in the war of 1812, he enlisted in the American army, but did not see any active service. Later he followed contracting, and was superintendent of the collieries at Beaver Meadow and Summit Hill.
The last years of his life were devoted to farming on the Laird homestead in Madison township, Columbia County, Pennsylvania. His religious faith was that of the Presbyterian church. His presidential vote was cast for General Jackson, later he became a Whig, and at the dissolution of that party he was known as an ardent advocate of the American party, and from the time of Lincoln's nomination for the presidency he was a stalwart Republican. A warm friend of the cause of education, he did everything in his power to promote the free school system, and it is said that he rode two horses nearly to death in the fight against the large landed proprietors who were bitterly opposed to be taxed in order to support the free school system. His electioneering was done at night, and quietly among the classes of people who were not property holders, and who outvoted their aristocratic neighbors, who had expected no opposition of any kind. Mr. Daugherty always favored progress and improvement, and his was an active, useful and honorable career. He married Miss Mary Laird, who was born near Carlisle. Pennsylvania, March 15, 1794. He died at the age of eighty years, and was laid to rest by the side of his wife in the family burying ground of the Lairds at the Derry meetinghouse in Columbia county, Pennsylvania.