Joseph Hiester (November 18, 1752June 10, 1832) was an American politician, who served as the fifth governor of Pennsylvania from 1820 to 1823. He was a member of the Hiester family political dynasty, and was a member of the Democratic-Republican Party.
Biography
Hiester was the son of John Hiester and Maria Barbara Epler. He received a common-school education when he was not working on the farm, and became a clerk in a store in Reading run by Adam Whitman. He became a partner in the store in 1771 when he married Elizabeth, Whitman's daughter. He owned slaves.
At the beginning of the American Revolutionary War, he raised and equipped in that town a company with which he took part in the battles of Long Island and Germantown. He was then promoted to colonel. He was captured and briefly confined in the prison ship "Jersey," where he did much to alleviate the sufferings of his fellow prisoners. Later he was transferred to New York City where he was exchanged. In 1807, he was appointed one of the two major generals to command the quota of Pennsylvania militia that was called for by the president. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1797 until 1805, and again from 1815 until 1820, 14 years altogether. After Peter Muhlenberg resigned from the U.S. Senate in 1801, Hiester was one of two major candidates to replace him, but was overwhelmingly defeated by George Logan. In 1817, he ran for governor and was defeated by William Findlay. Hiester faced Findlay again in 1820 and narrowly won a single term in office. Refusing on principle to stand for reelection in 1823,
Initially buried at Reading's Reformed Church cemetery after his death in 1832, his remains were exhumed and reinterred at the Charles Evans Cemetery during the mid-19th century.
Legacy
A residence hall on the Penn State University Park campus was named after him.
Notes
References
- The Political Graveyard
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