Perched on a rise above the south bank of the White River in Yorktown, Stewart Cemetery is home to a handful of simple markers. One of them honors William Daugherty, a Revolutionary War Patriot remembered there although his remains rest elsewhere. Below it, the White River drifts by at its own unhurried pace, echoing the slow passage of time across the hillside. Decades have softened the edges of memory, but Daugherty’s cenotaph is a reminder of story carried onward.
To mark the United States’ 250th birthday, the Daughters of the American Revolution has joined forces with America250, the nationwide commemoration of our country’s semiquincentennial, to pay tribute to Revolutionary War Patriots. As part of the celebration, I’ll be sharing the stories of those laid to rest in Delaware County, with help from Kathi Hirons Kesterson -the regent of the Paul Revere Chapter of Muncie’s DAR– over the next several Fridays.
William Daugherty was born in 1754 in Chester County, Pennsylvania1. As a young man, he moved to Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, near the Monongahela River. The call for independence spread through the colonies as he came of age, and the area Daugherty settled stood at the edge of danger between British-allied Native forces and more vulnerable settlements further west2.
Daugherty first volunteered for his fledgling nation in August 1777, when he served three weeks as a private in the Pennsylvania troops under Colonel Thomas Gaddis3. Along with his company, he guarded Fort Swearengen and played a pivotal role in capturing a number of British soldiers4. Today, written testimony -sometimes hard to follow- relates the chaos of his brief, early service5:
“In August 1777 He Volunteered under Col [sic] Gattis or Gadis and met at his house near Beeson Town and went to Swearengens Fort about one mile from the Monongahela River and about one mile below the mouth of Cheat River where we stayed three weeks obeying the commands of Gattis as our captain or leader of the band.
“While there we took a number of Tories and hand cuffed them and confined them in the fort When one White and Isaac Boset [Bassett] were hanged by our party This declarant cut them down before they were dead and saved their lives6.”
The gist of the story is that William Daugherty helped capture two British soldiers -Isaac Boset and William White- who were later sentenced to hang. Remarkably, Daugherty cut them down and saved their lives! He was given a verbal discharge for his actions7 and transferred to Beech Bottom Fort on the Ohio River. There, he served a month under Captain Samuel Swindler. Much of his role was to “guard the settlement from the attacks of the Indians we frequently scoured the neighboring country but had no battle8.”
The majority of William Daugherty’s Revolutionary War service -six months- came when he volunteered for a mission with Colonel John Evans and Captain James Daugherty to rendezvous with General Lachlan McIntosh in the Ohio frontier in 1778 and 17799. While there, Daugherty helped build Fort McIntosh and Fort Laurens, or Lawrence, on the Beaver River and the Tuscawaras10. For his efforts, he received pay in depreciated Continental currency equal to eight dollars a month11.
Later in 1779, Daugherty was called back into service. He spent fifteen days scouting, fifteen days at Stadler’s Fort, and a month at Harnet’s, or Hornet’s, Fort back in Pennsylvania. Much later, he recalled that he’d served nine months and three weeks as a Revolutionary War Patriot. Unlike the other Patriots I’ve featured so far, William Daugherty was actually granted a pension12!
So was his wife13. In 1776 or 1777, Daugherty married Lydia Cox of Pennsylvania. Together, they began a journey that mirrored the turbulence of our young nation. Their first move took them to Kentucky, where a fire destroyed their home along with the family Bible and records.
Undeterred, the family pressed on to Ohio, before William’s final chapter brought him to Indiana. He spent his last five years along the White River, and died on September 1, 1841 at the age of eighty-seven. Daugherty is believed to rest in an unmarked grave on land that later became part of David Campbell’s property.
For more than a century, William Daugherty’s grave went unmarked. That changed in 1928, when the Daughters of the American Revolution honored his memory with a modest stone at Stewart Cemetery in Yorktown. Although the cenotaph doesn’t mark his actual burial site, it stands as a tribute that ensures his role in securing American independence won’t be forgotten.
William Daugherty’s story is one of endurance, service, and legacy. His footsteps stretched from Pennsylvania to Kentucky, Ohio, and finally Indiana, but the arc of his life can still be traced along the south bank of the White River. Stewart Cemetery may hold only a cenotaph, but it anchors his memory in a place where the past meets the present. Just as the White River continues its slow, steady course, Daugherty’s legacy flows forward as well. As the land to the south is repurposed as the Daugherty Preserve housing development, his simple cenotaph reminds us that even lives once lost to time can still ripple outward in lasting ways.
Sources Cited
1 Haimbaugh, F.D. (1924). History of Delaware County, Indiana. Volume I. Historical Publishing Company [Indianapolis]. book.
2 Kesterson, K. H. (2025, September 28). William Daugherty, Sr. (1754-1841): Revolutionary Patriot and Pioneer. Digital document.
3 Old Records Here Show Facts of Revolution (1931, December 10). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 5.
4 (See footnote 3).
5 (See footnote 1).
6 NARA, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-ca. 1912; Pension application of William Daugherty (W.4182), Pennsylvania; M804, roll 0839; Record Group 15; Washington, D.C. Transcription and quote extractions by Kathryn Kesterson.
7 (See footnote 3).
8 (See footnote 6).
9 Greene, D. (1958, November 25). Seen and Heard in Our Neighborhood. The Muncie Star. p. 4.
10 (See footnote 9).
11 (See footnote 2).
12 U.S. Treasury Department, Second Comptroller’s Office. Letter regarding William Daugherty,
pensioner, payment under Act of June 7, 1832, Scioto Agency, July 16, 1840. Revolutionary War
Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, NARA Microfilm Publication M804,
Record Group 15. William Daugherty, Pension Application No. W4182. Digital image, Fold3.com
(https://www.fold3.com : accessed September 2025). Transcribed by Kathryn Hirons Kesterson.
13 “Summary note for widow’s pension of Lydia Doughty, widow of William Doughty, Ohio, Act of
4 July 1836, ”in Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800–1900,
file W4182, William Doughty, service in the Revolutionary War; Case Files of Pension and
Bounty-Land Warrant Applications, ca. 1800–ca. 1912; Records of the Department of Veterans
Affairs, Record Group 15; National Archives, Washington, D.C. Digital images, Fold3.com
(https://www.fold3.com : accessed September 2025). Transcribed by Kathryn Kesterson.
