Joseph Hiester

Joseph Hiester (November 18, 1752 – June 10, 1832) was an American politician who served as the fifth governor of Pennsylvania from 1820 to 1823. A prominent member of the Hiester family political dynasty, he was associated with the Democratic-Republican Party and, as a member of the Republican Party representing Pennsylvania in the early national period, he contributed to the legislative process during seven terms in the United States House of Representatives. His long public career spanned the Revolutionary era through the early decades of the republic, and he was widely known by the nickname “Old German Grey,” reflecting both his age and his Pennsylvania Dutch German heritage and accent.

Hiester was born in Berks County, Pennsylvania, the son of John Hiester and Maria Barbara Epler. He received a common-school education when he was not working on the family farm, a typical upbringing for a rural Pennsylvania youth of German descent in the mid-eighteenth century. As a young man he moved into commercial work, becoming a clerk in a store in Reading operated by Adam Whitman. In 1771 he married Whitman’s daughter, Elizabeth, and at that time became a partner in the business, establishing himself as a merchant in the growing town of Reading. Like many prosperous Pennsylvanians of his era, he owned slaves, a fact that reflected both his economic status and the broader, if limited, presence of slavery in the state prior to gradual abolition.

With the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, Hiester quickly emerged as a local military leader. In Reading he raised and equipped a company of soldiers at his own initiative and expense, and with this company he took part in major engagements, including the Battle of Long Island in 1776 and the Battle of Germantown in 1777. His service led to promotion to the rank of colonel. During the conflict he was captured by British forces and confined on the notorious prison ship Jersey, where he reportedly did much to alleviate the sufferings of his fellow prisoners. He was later transferred to New York City and eventually exchanged, returning to Pennsylvania with enhanced stature as a veteran of the struggle for independence.

Hiester’s political career began in the revolutionary era and continued through the formative years of both state and national government. He was a member of the convention of 1776 that drafted the Articles of Confederation, contributing to the first constitutional framework for the United States. He later served as a delegate to the Pennsylvania state convention that ratified the United States Constitution, and he participated in the Pennsylvania constitutional convention of 1790, which revised the state’s fundamental law. At the state legislative level, he served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1787 to 1790 and then in the Pennsylvania Senate, representing the 17th district, from 1790 to 1794. His prominence in state affairs was further underscored in 1807, when he was appointed one of two major generals to command the quota of Pennsylvania militia called for by the president, reflecting continued confidence in his military and organizational abilities.

Hiester’s service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history, as he participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of his constituents in a rapidly evolving republic. He served in the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania from 1797 until 1805, and again from 1815 until 1820, for a total of fourteen years, encompassing seven terms in office. During these years he sat as a Republican (in the contemporary sense of the Jeffersonian Republican, or Democratic-Republican, Party), aligning himself with the political movement that opposed Federalist policies and advocated for a more agrarian, states’ rights–oriented vision of the nation. In 1801, following the resignation of Peter Muhlenberg from the United States Senate, Hiester was one of the two major candidates to succeed him, but he was overwhelmingly defeated by George Logan in the legislative election, a setback that did not, however, end his influence in Pennsylvania politics.

Hiester’s ambition for higher office turned increasingly toward the governorship. In 1817 he ran for governor of Pennsylvania but was defeated by the incumbent, William Findlay. The contest reflected deep factional divisions within the Democratic-Republican Party in the state. He stood again against Findlay in the gubernatorial election of 1820 and this time narrowly prevailed, becoming the fifth governor of Pennsylvania. His term formally extended from 1820 to 1823, though he remained in office into 1824 until his successor took office. As governor, he presided over the dedication of the first state capitol building in the new capital of Harrisburg, symbolizing the state’s institutional consolidation and westward shift of political power. He surprised both partisans and opponents by making appointments based on merit rather than strict party affiliation, an approach that distinguished his administration in an era of increasingly organized party politics. On principle, he refused to stand for reelection in 1823, limiting himself to a single term and then retiring from public life when his service concluded in 1824.

In his later years Hiester lived quietly in Reading, where his long record as a soldier, legislator, and governor made him a respected elder statesman in Pennsylvania’s German-speaking community. He died on June 10, 1832. Initially he was buried in the Reformed Church cemetery in Reading, in keeping with local custom and his religious and community ties. In the mid-nineteenth century, as urban development and changing burial practices led to the consolidation of cemeteries, his remains were exhumed and reinterred at Charles Evans Cemetery in Reading, a prominent resting place for many of the city’s leading citizens. His memory continued to be honored in Pennsylvania, and in the twentieth century a residence hall on the Penn State University Park campus was named after him, reflecting ongoing recognition of his role in the state’s early political history and his place within the influential Hiester family dynasty.