James Laird was a very prominent man in his community, served in the Revolutionary War, participated in the bathe of Brandywine, and by his numerous friends and acquaintances was always accosted as Captain Laird. He was a member of the Pennsylvania state senate from 1806 until 1812, representing the district comprising Northumberland, and Luzeme counties. He and his father sold their lands in what was then Lancaster County and removed to Northumberland (now Columbia) County, about 1797 or 1798. James Laird wedded Mary McFarlane and their children were: William, Mary and John. His second wife, was a Miss Watson, and there children were: Thomas, Samuel and Jane. When James Laird was serving as state senator, his daughter, Mary, the mother of Thomas Daugherty, would ride on the pillion of his saddle to Harrisburg, where she was left to attend school, while her father attended the sessions of the legislature at the state capitol in Lancaster. Her death occurred when she was seventy-nine years of age, and she, too, was laid to rest in Derry churchyard in Columbia County.