George Duffield Slaymaker was born around 1848 in Williamstown, Pennsylvania, to Nathaniel and Mary Slaymaker. His father was a farmer who owned $26,900 of real estate and $1,500 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Paradise, Pennsylvania, and by 1870, he was working as a lime burner. He got married, but his wife died soon afterward. According to an early biographer, “to regain his lost health he went to Silverton, Colorado, where he erected a block of business houses and invested largely in mining enterprises.” He eventually returned to Pennsylvania, and he married Clara Steele. He retired around 1890, and he died of consumption in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on November 22, 1891.

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