This painting of U.S. Army General Josiah Harmar is on display in the
Diplomatic Reception Rooms at the U.S. Department of State.
| Josiah Harmar was born in Philadelphia on November 10, 1753, of wealthy parents, and was educated chiefly in the Quaker School of Robert Proud (born in Yorkshire, England, May 10, 1728; died in Philadelphia, July 7, 1813). His mother was Elizabeth Harmar (died in 1780). Entering the Continental Army as a Captain in the First Battalion of the First Pennsylvania Regiment on October 27, 1775, he was promoted to Major of the Third Pennsylvania Regiment on October 1, 1776; transferred to the Second Regiment on January 1, 1777; promoted Lieut. Colonel of the Sixth Pennsylvania Regiment on June 6, 1777, and served actively until the end of the war. He was with Washington’s army in the campaign of 1778-80, being appointed Lieut. Colonel Commandant of the Seventh Pennsylvania Regiment on August 9, 1780, and was with General Greene’s Division in the South in 1781-82. He was transferred to the Third Pennsylvania Regiment on January 17, 1781, and to the First Pennsylvania Regiment on January 1, 1783. He was brevetted Colonel on September 30, 1783, and served to November 3 of the same year. On October 19, 1784, he married Sarah Jenkins (born March 14, 1761), sister of Mary Jenkins (who married Major Samuel Nicholas), and the same year bore to France the ratification of the Definitive Treaty. On January 20, 1785, he was Indian Agent for the Northwest Territory, and a party to the Fort McIntosh Treaty. On August 12, 1784, he was appointed Lieut. Colonel of the First United States Regiment of Infantry and subsequently became Commander of the Army, serving as such from September 27, 1789, to March 14, 1791. In 1790, he commanded an expedition against the Miami Indians. On July 31, 1787, he was brevetted Brigadier General by solution of Congress. He resigned his commission on January 1, 1792; and on Thursday, April 11, 1793, was appointed Adjutant General of the Pennsylvania Militia, which office he held during the Whisky Insurrection, and until Wednesday, February 27, 1799, when he resigned and was succeeded by Peter Baynton. He was an active member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati, serving as its Secretary from 1783 to 1785 and again in 1793. He died in Philadelphia at his home near Gray’s Ferry, on August 20, 1813, when 60 years of age, and was buried in St. James’ Churchyard, Kingsessing. His son, Josiah Harmar (born 1802) died on December 31, 1848, in his 47th year. From Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Philadelphia, PA: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, vol. XLVI, 1922, pp. 364-365. According to the author Howard H. Peckham, Sarah (Jenkins) and Josiah Harmar were married in October 1784. She was a young Philadelphia woman (born March 14, 1761) whom he had known for a year. In his diary, Josiah referred to her as the “divine Miss Sarah” or “my dear Sally.” On July 23, 1786, she arrived at Fort Harmar with her husband and lived on the Ohio Country frontier for a few years. Between 1785 and 1803, Sarah Harmar gave birth to five children – Charles, Eliza, Josiah Jr., William, and a daughter who died when she was a small child. |