A Genealogy of The Hiester Family

By Valeria E. Clymer Hill

Wernersville, PA

Reading Eagle Press, Reading PA, MCMXLI (1941)   

The Hiester family in America is descended from three brothers.  John, the eldest, emigrated in 1732 and was followed in 1737 by Joseph and Daniel who sailed in that year in the ship St. Andrew from Rotterdam.  The family records in Daniel Hiester’s prayer book describe the three brothers as sons of John and Catharine Hiester and their birthplace as the village (dorf) of Elsoff in  the county (graftschaft) of Wittgenstein, in the province of Westphalia.

Record was found of the baptism of John, the eldest brother, who was the father of Governor Joseph Hiester:  (translated) In Elsoff, on the 8^th of January, 1708, Johann Jost Huester and Anna Katharina, a married couple, had a son baptized whose Godfather was the mother’s single brother, and Barbara, Jost Huester’s lawful daughter.  The child was named John.

Daniel of Montgomery, John of Chester, and Gabriel of Berks, the three eldest sons of Daniel entered the service as field officers, the two former with the rank of colonel, and the latter with that of major.  William, the fourth and youngest son of Daniel, although also enrolled, did not, on account of his extreme youth and the infirmity of his aged parents, serve more than one campaign.  Joseph Hiester, afterward Governor of Pennsylvania, the only son of John, entered the service as a captain in the “Flying Camp”, and having been made a prisoner at the battle of Long Island, and confined on board the notorious Jersey Prison Ship, New Jersey, he was after his exchange, promoted to the rank of colonel.  After the war, he and his two cousins, Daniel and John, were elected tot he rank of major general of the militia in their respective districts.  The popularity of these men, gained by their devotions to the country, and the public spirit during the eventful struggles of the Revolutionary War, never forsook them.  After the conclusion of peace, they all enjoyed by the suffrage of the people, a large share in the councils of the State and general government.  General Daniel Hiester was the first representative in Congress under the present constitution from Berks County, of which he had in the meantime become a citizen.  In 1796, he removed to Maryland, where he was again repeatedly elected to the same office, from the districts composed of Washington, Frederick and Allegheny counties, until the time of his decease, which occurred at Washington city in the session of 1801-1802.

“Joseph Hiester was elected a member of the convention which met in Philadelphia in November, 1787, to consider and ratify or reject the present constitution  of the United States; and in 1789 he was a member of the convention which formed the second constitution of this State.  Under that constitution, he and Gabriel Hiester, who had also been a member of the convention which formed the first State constitution, were repeatedly elected to the Legislature, the latter continuing either in the Senate or House of Representatives uninterruptedly for nearly thirty years.  General Joseph Hiester, after the removal of Daniel to Maryland, represented his district, composted in part of Berks County, in Congress, and about the same time General John Hiester was also chosen a member of the same body from Chester County.  Both were reelected for a series of years – the former, until he resigned in 1820, when he was elected Governor of Pennsylvania, and the latter until he declined a reelection and retired to private life.”