Capt. Joseph Harker

Another Revolutionary War Soldier Discovered at Port Byron

Capt. Joseph Harker was born 9/28/1743 in Morris County, NJ. He served in Capt. Abraham Lyon's Company, 4th NJ Regiment commanded by Col. Ephraim Martin. His wife was Mary Walling. Joseph died in September of 1815.

After the war the Harker family moved to Stillwater, NY in Saratoga County. This is the same area where Seth Higley and Philip King lived before they came to Port Byron. I was very surprised to find this soldier in the Harker-Higley genealogy as he has never appeared on our soldier list. The book describes his burial place in Port Byron as the old cemetery near the Erie canal. It also reports that a brick wall was constructed by Joseph's son James Harker before he moved to Illinois in 1829. This certainly fits the description of our Old Port Byron Cemetery, today known as King Cemetery.

The book indicates that their headstones were in poor condition, so today I walked the cemetery to see if I could find any remains of their headstones. I am sad to report that their head stones have not survived the fate of time. However, thanks to this book, I will now be able to order a military marker for him. King Cemetery is a tremendous challenge because there are no burial records or maps. The only record that exists are previous headstone inventories and the Harker name has not appeared on our lists.

Reading the history of this family was fascinating. As I mentioned, our soldier had a son named James. James was married twice. His first wife was Mary McColom. His second wife was Puella Higley, a widow of Josiah Partridge and daughter of Seth Higley. Puella was born at Half Moon in Saratoga County, NY. They moved to Peoria County, Illinois in 1829. Their settlement would be named "Harker's Corner" after their namesake.


The family genealogy is important because without it, we would have never known that Capt. Joseph Harker was buried here. You can read more about this family by visiting:

Harker-Higley Ancestry by Margaret P Brown

Italian Artifacts of Port Byron

Seeking artifacts from Port Byron Italian farmers for display at the New York State Museum

The New York State Museum with the assistance of the Association of Public Historian's of New York State (APHNYS) would like to know if anyone from the Port Byron Italian families have any artifacts that could be loaned to the State Museum for their exhibit on New York's ethnic and cultural history.

Anyone that has old photos of your Italian ancestors, old farm tools, household items or anything that you are able to share, please contact me. Many may have purchased property once owned by these immigrants, so any artifacts you have that can be loaned would be appreciated.

It would be wonderful to see Port Byron in this wonderful exhibit.

I forwarded the publication about the Port Byron immigration study to our State Historian Mr. Robert Weible, and there is much interest to have our community featured in the exhibit.

Italian Bees

Here is a comment by Harvey Ware, where he describes in detail having an Italian Drone of bees:

Gleamings in Bee Culture 1882 page 459

Gleamings in Bee Culture 1882 page 554