James O'Hara (1752?–1819) was an American military officer, businessman, and captain of early industry in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Early life

He was born

County Mayo County Mayo (; ga, Contae Mhaigh Eo, meaning "Plain of the Taxus baccata, yew trees") is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Conn ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, the son of Major John O'Hara, and in 1765 attended the Jesuit College of Saint-Sulpice in

Paris, France Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. He served in the

Coldstream Guards The Coldstream Guards is the oldest continuously serving regular regiment in the British Army. As part of the Household Division, one of its principal roles is the protection of the monarchy; due to this, it often participates in state ceremonia ...

, a

regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation. In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscripted ...

of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

, in 1770, and resigned his ensign's commission the next year to gain business skills as a clerk in a ship broker's office in

Liverpool, England Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

. His goal was to emigrate to the American colonies to seek business opportunities. O'Hara arrived at

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

in 1772. By 1773 he had established himself on the colonial frontier at Pittsburgh, where he worked for the traders Devereaux Smith and Ephraim Douglas. He spent two years learning to do business with the Native Americans of

Western Pennsylvania Western Pennsylvania is a region in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, covering the western third of the state. Pittsburgh is the region's principal city, with a metropolitan area population of about 2.4 million people, and serves as its economic ...

and

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. In 1774 he was appointed a colonial government agent to the Indians and he began to purchase tracts of lands in the region. During this period his knowledge of French and his ability to learn Indian dialects made him very successful.

U.S. military service

At the outbreak of the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

he enlisted in the 3rd Virginia Regiment, where he was elected captain. He served at Fort Pitt and Fort Kanawha. In 1781 he served as commissary of the general hospital at

Carlisle, Pennsylvania Carlisle is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough in and the county seat of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. Carlisle is located within the Cumberland Valley, a highly productive agricultural region. As of the 2020 United States census, ...

, and from 1781 to 1783 as assistant quartermaster under General

Nathanael Greene Nathanael Greene (June 19, 1786, sometimes misspelled Nathaniel) was a major general of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War. He emerged from the war with a reputation as General George Washington's most talented and dependabl ...

. On 19 April 1792, he was appointed by

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

as the sixth Quartermaster General of the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

. He served until 1796. There is some confusion about his rank, but he was not a general officer. By law, he was entitled to the pay and privileges of a lieutenant colonel. Many referred to him as "Colonel" O'Hara. However, he signed his correspondence, "James O'Hara, Q.M.G."

Business life

In 1783 while in Philadelphia, O'Hara met and married Mary Carson, with whom he had six children. They moved back to Pittsburgh in 1784, where he started a general store, O'Hara & Company. He did business during the next decade as a government contractor, providing Generals

Josiah Harmar Josiah Harmar (November 10, 1753August 20, 1813) was an officer in the United States Army during the American Revolutionary War and the Northwest Indian War. He was the senior officer in the Army for six years and seven months (August 1784 to Ma ...

and Arthur St. Clair with provisions during the Indian wars. By the 1790s he was a prominent business man in Pittsburgh. He established the Pittsburgh Glassworks in 1795. He set up a salt business, a sawmill, and with partner John Reed established Pittsburgh Point Brewery. He also invested in ship building and in John Henry Hopkin's Ligonier ironworks. He became president of the

Bank of Pennsylvania The Bank of Pennsylvania was established on July 17, 1780, by Philadelphia merchants to provide funds for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Its investors included George Meade & Co., with a £2,000 payment. Within a yea ...

. All the while he continued as an enterprising land speculator in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County.

Politics

Though O'Hara was affiliated with the

Federalist Party The Federalist Party was a Conservatism in the United States, conservative political party which was the first political party in the United States. As such, under Alexander Hamilton, it dominated the national government from 1789 to 1801. De ...

, he was only tempted by political office once, in 1802, when he ran unsuccessfully for

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...

. He was Pittsburgh's chief burgess (known today as mayor) in 1803. James O'Hara died at his home on Water Street in Pittsburgh on 21 December 1819.

Tributes to O'Hara

O'Hara's name is attached to streets in Pittsburgh as well as the suburb of

O'Hara Township, Pennsylvania O'Hara Township is a township with home rule statusPennsylvania Codebr>Title 302, Section 21.1-101 ''et seq.'' in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, six miles northeast of Downtown Pittsburgh. The community was long organized as a t ...

. The attack transport ship, USS ''James O'Hara'' (APA-90) saw extensive action in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 1963 the novelist

Agnes Sligh Turnbull Agnes Sligh Turnbull (October 14, 1888, New Alexandria, Pennsylvania – January 31, 1982, Livingston, New Jersey) was a bestselling United States, American writer, most noted for her works of historical fiction based in her native Western Penn ...

published a fictionalized account of his life entitled ''The King's Orchard''. He is also the maternal grandfather of Mary Schenley, who would donate the homesteads of her grandfather to the now booming industrial city of Pittsburgh a century after James O'Hara staked them out. Much of her donations of her grandfather's lands were developed into

Schenley Park Schenley Park () is a large municipal park located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, between the neighborhoods of Oakland, Greenfield, and Squirrel Hill. It is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district. In 2011, th ...

Schenley Plaza Schenley Plaza is a public park serving as the grand entrance into Schenley Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The plaza, located on Forbes Avenue and Schenley Drive in the city's Oakland district, includes multiple gardens, food kiosks, public m ...

, and the Schenley Farms neighborhood. His home,

Neill Log House The Neal Log House (renamed Neill Log House in 1970) is a historic log cabin built in 1765 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Neal Log House is the oldest existing residential structure in Pittsburgh and one of the last few buildings left from the ...

, is preserved in

as a historic structure.

References

* "James O'Hara" by William Weisberger in ''American National Biography''. New York:

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 1999. * ;Specific

External links

Township of O'Hara

''Quartermaster Museum''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ohara, James Irish emigrants to the United States (before 1923) 18th-century Irish people 19th-century Irish people Politicians from Pittsburgh 1752 births 1819 deaths Coldstream Guards officers Continental Army staff officers People from County Mayo People of Virginia in the American Revolution Quartermasters General of the United States Army Burials at Allegheny Cemetery