• Born: Penfield, Monroe County, N.Y. — Aug. 25, 1825
Died: Jacksonville, Fla., 1868. Buried: Rockford, Ill.
“E. C. Daugherty was the grandson of Wm. Daugherty, who was born in Ulster, County Antrim, Ireland. His grandmother, Eleanor McKeever, was born just across the North Channel in Scotland. A flag flown from her window could be seen across the Channel which indicated when her lover would find her home. The boat crossing was in sight of the Giants Causeway. Within a year after they were married they came to this country and settled in Washington Co., N.Y. in about 1790. There they had seven children – 4 sons, 3 daughters. In 1812 they moved to Penfield, N.Y. One of their sons was John Daugherty, born in Cambridge, Washington Co., N.Y. He married Julia Hubbard and was the father of Elias C. Daugherty. In 1827 John moved his family from Penfield to Buffalo.
In his late teens, E. C. D. became an apprentice printer with the Commercial Advertiser. He married Sophronia Clark on Oct. 21, 1846. In 1850 they moved to Dansville, N.Y. and he started the Dansville Herald, May 23, 1850. After 4 years he sold it moved to Rockford, Ill. and established on Feb. 15, 1855 the Rockford Register. Due to ill health he sold the Register, Feb. 23, 1867. A year later he went to Jacksonville, Fla. for his health but it was too late. He soon passed away from tuberculosis. He left his wife, Sophronia, and two daughters, Flora and Julia. He was a shrewd businessman and left his family in very comfortable circumstances.591, p 4

• The Dansville Express (formerly the Dansville Herald) was started in 1850 by E. C. Daugherty & Co., James G. Sprague being the silent partner, but he never assumed any part in the management of the paper. It was started as a Whig paper, and as Mr. Daugherty, having learned the printer’s trade in Buffalo, was a high-class printer and a man of excellent character, he succeeded in making the Herald a model paper, having but few equals among the rural weeklies of the State. He continued to publish the Herald until the fall of 1854 when it was sold to H. L. and L. H. Rann, who also came to Dansville from Buffalo. Mr. Daugherty moved to Rockford, Ills., and started the Rockford Register, and built up a prosperous business. He died of consumption while in Florida in 1863, lamented by those who knew him best.1742

• In the autumn of 1853 the Young Men’s Association was organized, for the purpose of bringing to Rockford the most popular lecturers of the day, and it continued in this field until 1860. Among the members were: E. C. Daugherty.597, p 757

• Rockford Register, established February, 1855, as a Republican paper, by Elias C. Daugherty, who continued its publication until June 12, 1865, when the entire establishment, and also the Rock River Democrat office, were purchased by a joint stock company, known as the Rockford Register Company, by whom it has been published to the present time.1744, p 384

• The Rockford Register was founded by E. C. Daugherty in February, 1855. There were already two weekly papers in the field, the Republican and the Democrat. But Mr. Daugherty was confident there was always room at the top. In his prospectus Mr. Daugherty said he had “selected the flourishing and beautiful city of Rockford as his future home, believing the field ample for a new aspirant to public favor.”
Mr. Daugherty had in him the elements of the reformer, and he founded the Register as a strong opponent of the extension of slavery.1745, p 134
Commencing with a limited capital, and contending against strong opposition, Mr. Daugherty lived to see both the original papers, and others, merged into the Register, which became a strong and influential paper. The Register absorbed other papers representing an almost unbroken line since 1840. The impaired health of Mr. Daugherty compelled him to retire from active business life.1745, p 135

• In its first issue, published Feb. 15, 1855, the Rockford Register said: “Regarding the institution of slavery as anti-Christian, inhuman, a national evil and shame, the Register will deprecate its existence, oppose its continuance where it exists by sufferance of the general government, and exert its influence against the farther extension of the evil.”1746

• Daily Register, Republican, established by Elias C. Daugherty, June 1, 1859, but discontinued at the end of three months. Was renewed in October, 1877.1744, p 385

• E. C. Daugherty
“E. C. Daugherty is remembered and honored in Dansville for his consistent Christian character and uncommon ability as a printer and editor. He learned his trade in Buffalo, and graduated as one of the swiftest and most skillful printers in that city. He came to Dansville, and started the Dansville Herald in May, 1850, and published it for four years, winning general confidence and esteem. Then he went to Rockford, Ill., where he started the Rockford Register in February, 1854. By hard and conscientious labor he gradually raised the paper to widespread influence and financial success, but in doing so sapped the fountains of life. He went to Jacksonville, Fla., to improve his health, and died there February 19, 1868, aged forty-five.1741, p 256

• Death of Mr. E. C. Daugherty
We incidentally hear of the death of Mr. E. C. Daugherty, of Rockford, Illinois, formerly of this village. Mr. Daugherty founded the Dansville Herald in 1850, and the Rockford Register in 1855. We shall expect to hear during the week more fully concerning his death and shall write a notice worthy of the man who was held in such high esteem both here and in the west.1747

• We are under obligations to the editor of the Rockford Register for copies of that paper containing notices of the death and funeral services of the late lamented E. C. Daugherty, whose decease we mentioned two weeks since. Mr. Daugherty died on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 1868 in Jacksonville, Florida, for which place he left Rockford on the 21st of January. He did not go south expecting permanent benefit, but at the earnest solicitation of friends who wished to prolong his life if possible. He was accompanied by his wife, who testifies that he died triumphantly, in the hope of meeting the Saviour whom he had so consistently served. He left a wife and two daughters who have our heartfelt sympathy.
Mr. Daugherty was born in Penfield, Monroe County, August 25th 1825. While quite young he entered the office of the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser as an apprentice, and graduated therefrom in a few years with great honors. The first venture he made for himself was in establishing the Dansville Herald. The initial number was issued May 23, 1850. After four years of untiring labor here, during which time he won the confidence and esteem of all with whom he came in contact, Mr. D’s attention was called to the enterprising city of Rockford, Illinois, and thither he removed in 1854, and issued the first number of the Rockford Register on the 15th of February following. Well do we remember the event, for we accompanied Mr. Daugherty to Rockford, assisted him in fitting up his office and set the first stick of type ever composed for the Register. The only press we had in the office that winter was a Washington Hand Press No. 4 on which all the press work of the office was done. Mr. Daugherty was never of a sanguine nature and had many misgivings of the success of the new enterprise, but setting himself firmly in the harness he commenced that long, strong, unceasing pull, which continued until the Register issued from obscurity upon the broad highway of success, the great exponent of patriotism, morality, temperance and religion in Northern Illinois. But alas! The life he gave to his business was taken from himself, and his paper which should have been to him a mantle of strength and glory, proved like the cocoon to the silkworm, a shroud of his own weaving.
Writing this upon the same desk on which Mr. Daugherty penned his first editorial, we feel near us the quiet, serious presence of the kind employer who made life so earnest and work so unremitting, and when we remember his many hours of hard application, we cease to wonder that he, never robust, should have ceased to live just when a man should be in his prime of power and strength. It was his custom to finish each evening’s labor by laying out the work of the succeeding day, and the next evening’s lamplight always saw finished what the last ray of day’s sunlight had left undone. A thoroughly practical printer himself, his care was not confined to the editorial, but extended as well to all the details of the mechanical department of his business, and never foreman or journeyman was so experienced and trustworthy that his work must not pass under the inspection of the grave, searching eyes behind the gold rimmed glasses. All honor and peace to the memory of the consistent Christian editor and printer, who did so much to elevate and dignify our profession. We feel the world has been made the better for his having lived in it.
A. O. Bunnell1737, p 1

• From Coldwater (Mich.) Republican:
“An editor gone — Do you know, Mr. Editor, that one of your noble brothers of the Fraternity has just departed. I saw it in the Chicago papers last week, that E. C. Daugherty, Esq., Editor and Publisher of the Rockford Register, has died in Florida, whither he had gone for his health. It was my happiness to have known him when he was at the head of the Dansville, N.Y. Herald, and a more genial and gentlemanly man is rare to find. He was very mild and amiable — having so much sweetness of manners that one would have thought him lacking in energy and power. He was ever a leading man in the Whig cause of those days, and his paper at Rockford has shown him the same in the Republican Party. Mr. Daugherty was distinguished for his wonderful skill as a local item man, there being nothing of any interest which he did not find out and publish in a very attractive manner. As a member of the Methodist Church, he was ever reliable and valuable, and his influence on the moral and religious tone of his town and region, some half a hundred of his old friends followed him — so many that they made a very respectable party for a 4th of July celebration, which they observed as Dansville men. He soon made his mark in the beautiful city of his choice in the west, and his labors were so well appreciated, that his paper became the leading one of that region, and its owner a man of no little wealth. But this could not save him from that enemy which loves a shining mark. He has, for several years, been an invalid, and finally sought the milder clime of the orange groves. But it was of little avail. He died about a week ago, and leaves a much attached wife, and two children, and troops of friends to mourn his loss. He was about forty-five years of age. Mr. Thomas Daugherty of this city, was his uncle, and among his mourners, as also is his friend, J. W. Ray.1737, p 2,204, p 4

• He was a shrewd businessman and left his family in very comfortable circumstances.591, p 5

• 1830 Census: Buffalo, Erie, New York. 111002/20002.1748
• 1840 Census: Buffalo, Erie, New York. 0010111/002011.1749
• 1850 Census: North Dansville, Livingston, New York. Age 25, b NY. Listed as “Eliz. Dougherty, female.”614
• 1860 Census: Rockford, Winnebago, Illinois. Age 35, Editor & Proprietor, Rockford Register, $3,600; $6,000, b NY.615

• [end of poem]
Ah, pleasant thus, methinks, to dwell
Amid the wild-woods shade,
Where songsters warbling notes may swell
In praise of Him who made --
And then at close of setting day,
In gathering hour of even,
To calmly meditate and pray,
And sweetly think of Heaven. -----1753

• an old family friend.591, p 2

• 1880 Census: Rockford, Winnebago, Illinois. Age 58, b England. Wagon Maker. Parents b England.1755
• 1900 Census: Pomona, Los Angeles, California. Age 78, b May 1822, England. Farmer. Parents b England.1751

• both formerly of Rockford, where they have many friends.1757, p 5
• Married 5 years in 1900.1751