Hiester being A Genealogy from Johannes Hüster to the Seventh Generation

Compiled by John P. Hiester of Chicago, revised and supplemented by 1933

INTRODUCTION 

The material here used was collated and arranged by John P. Hiester of Chicago, Illinois, a son of the Rev. Jonathan E. Hiester, D.D., a minister of the Reformed Church in the United States and for a long time pastor at Annville, Pennsylvania.  His sources were books in the Chicago Public Library, correspondence with various Hiesters and family and church records.

The name of Hiester has been so extensively connected with the general and state governments in the early history of our country that a brief sketch of the family history may not be uninteresting.

The remote ancestor of the family is believed to have been the Silesian knight Preiscloros Husternisz, who flourished about 1329 and held the office of Mayor or Town-Captain of the city of Swineford in Silesia.  In 1480, the Patrician and Counselor of Swineford, Adolphus Louis, called “der Hiester”, obtained from Emperor Frederick letters patent whereby he and his posterity were authorized to use the coat of arms he had inherited from his ancestors, to whom it was formerly granted with the faculty of transmitting it as an hereditary right and privilege to all his descendants.

COATS OF ARMS

A corespondent of John P. Hiester in London, England (about 1900) who was a genealogist and an authority in heraldry, informed him that seven different families of Hiesters in Europe were registered in his foreign reference books, to whom armonial bearings were recorded as follows:

1.        Heister: Brabant; Arms only

2.        Heister: Pays de Juliers (Juelich); a Quartered arms

3.        Heister: Hesse; Confirmation of Nobility January 8, 1681); Arms and Crest

4.        Heister: Bohemia; Barons of Holy Roman Empire 24 July 1664; Counts of the Holy Roman Empire, 3 March 1692; Quartered Arms and two Crests

5.        Heister: Brunswick;, a Quartered Arms and Crest

6.        Heister: Botzen, Tyrol; Arms and Crest

7.        Heister, van: Ruremomde, Sittard); Arms only

The coat of arms of the Silesian knight, Premiscloros Husternisz, is described as follows: “Escutcheon, azure; a sun, or; Crest: between two horns surmounting a helmet affronte, a sun, as in the arms”.  That is, a blue shield with a golden sun; the crest is a helmet with two horns facing front, and between the horns a golden sun.

All these countries were at one time parts of the ancient German or Holy Roman Empire.  From Silesia, the original country of the family, the Hiesters were distributed throughout Austria, Bavaria, Saxony, Switzerland and the countries bordering on the Rhine.

The gentleman referred to above also stated that he had some genealogical notes respecting the Heister family of Hesse, NO. 3 above, which ended with the following sentence: “In Schleisien und Westphalen angessessen”, that is, settled in Silesia and Westphalia. 

From this it may be inferred that the American Hiesters have descended from this Hessian family and that their European ancestors came from Silesia, a province of eastern Prussia to Westphalia, a province in western Prussia, along the Rhine.

MEANING OF THE NAME

One of the seats of the German branch of the family was at Heisterbach on the Rhine, not far from the Castle Drachenfels.  Here are still the ruins of an old Cistercian abbey built in 1202-1212 and surrounded by deep woods.  It is a place much visited by tourists.  Baedecker in his “Guide Book of the River Rhine” says of Heisterbach that “the gate still bears the arms of the abbey, – a heister, young beech, and a bach, brook.  At the side stands St. Benedict and St. Bernard.” A beautiful legend, “The Monk of Heisterbach”, is connected with ruined abbey.  The poet Longfellow also refers to this monk in his “Golden Legend”.

The name is spelled variously.  Originally it was Husterr, then Heister or Hiester, the preferred spelling of this branch of the family.

Different meanings are given the name, some believing it to mean “magpie”, others taking it to mean  “the man with a cough”, being a derivation of the German word “huste”, a cough, according to Dr. Jonathan E. Hiester.  Still others accept the meaning “beech tree”.  This seems reasonable and probable as the first four coats of arms listed above have a green beech tree on a silver background: “d’argent a un hetre de sinople”.

The name of the Silesian knight Husternisz, then, would mean, “beech-nut”.

The French hetre equals the Old French hestre, which would approach in spelling and sound the name Hiester.

EUROPEAN HIESTERS

Among the more prominent members of the family in Europe were the following:

1.        Siegbert Hiester, a graf (count) and field Marshall of Austria, was born in 1646.  His military career began in his nineteenth year, in 1665.  In 1689, he was a corps commander and fought in the Austro-Turkish War.  He died February 22, 1718, in his seventy-second year at Gut Kirchberg, Steiermark, Austria.  He was married four times, his first marriage being with a Grafin (countess) Zinzendorf.  He had two sons, Rudolf and Oberst.  The latter participated in the Austro-Turkish War and at the Battle of Belgrade, in 1707, under the leadership of Prince Eugene, was covered with eighteen sword wounds.

2.        Dr. Lorenz Heister was born at Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany, Sept. 19, 1683, and died at Helmstedt, Brunswick, Germany, April 18, 1758.  He was a professor of surgery at the University of Helmstedt from 1720 and the founder of the modern school of German surgery.  Some of his textbooks are still in use in German medical schools and they have been translated into other European languages and are considered standard works of their kind.

3.        Johann Heinrich Heister as a German historian who flourished in the middle of the eighteenth century and died in 1762.

4.        General Leopold Phillip de Heister was a crippled veteran of many campaigns.  He was born in 1707 and died in Hesse Cassel, November 19, 1777, in his seventieth year.  He commanded the Hessian troops at the battle of Long Island in the American Revolution.  Family tradition has it that, when he learned that among the American prisoners taken at that battle was a captain Joseph Hiester, he sent for him and claimed relationship.  On the strength of this claim and his influence with the British commanding officers, he offered to secure Joseph Hiester’s release and get him an office and emoluments in the British army if he would forsake the cause of the colonists.  It is needless to say that anyone reading the life of General Joseph Hiester, afterward Governor of Pennsylvania, will find that this offer was indignantly spurned and, as a consequence, he languished for months as a prisoner in that infamous prison ship the “Jersey”.

THE AMERICAN HIESTERS

First HÜSTER/HUESTER/HIESTER Generation

While the first known immediate ancestor of the American Hiesters never came to this country, yet he is here included under this head.  He was Johannes Hüster.

He and his wife Catherine were born, lived and died in Germany, the dates and places of their birth and death being unknown.

They lived in the Dorf (village or borough) of Elsoff in the Grafschaft (county or township) of Wittgenstein in the province of Westphalia.

Their three sons, who became the immigrants from whom the Hiester family in America is descended, were John, Joseph and Daniel.  Since their affairs were much in common, they are considered together in the second generation.

Second HIESTER Generation

Before the time these brothers immigrated to America, their native land had been devastated by the ravages of war between the French and the Germans and the Austrians.  So drastic were the exactions that thousands of Germans, through hard usage, intolerable servitude and religious persecutions, were constrained to leave their native land and take refuge in the English colonies of America, particularly in Pennsylvania.  Frequent drafts were made by Friedrich Wilhelm I, King of Prussia, upon his subjects to fill his armies.  It may have been that the Hiester brothers took this step that they might escape military duty in the cruel and unjust wars then waging.

There is reason to believe that Johannes Hüster must have been a man of some means and that he furnished his sons with the necessary funds and sent them forth with his paternal blessing to the promised land beyond the western seas.  At any rate, it is a known fact that they, not long after their arrival in America, united in purchasing a tract of from 2,000 to 3,000 acres of land from the proprietary government of Pennsylvania.

1.        John Hüster

John Hüster was born in Elsoff, Germany, about 1702, the eldest son of Johannes and Catherine Hüster.  He immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1732 and died in 1757.

He was the first of the three brothers to immigrate to America, coming hither in 1732.  He first settled in Goshenhoppen, then in Philadelphia County, now in Montgomery.  Here he was joined by his two brothers, Joseph and Daniel, five years later, in 1737.

Having become thoroughly acquainted with the country, the brothers together purchased the tract of land mentioned above.  It was located in Bern Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, and extended from the old stone Bern Church to the Tulpehocken Creek.  On this property, the two elder brothers located, while Daniel remained on the farm which he had bought at Goshenhoppen until 1774, when he sold it to one of his sons and joined his brothers in Berks County.

John Hüster married Mary Barbara Epler, who was born August 16, 1732, and died October 5, 1809.  They had four children, of whom Joseph Hiester, the only son, was an officer in the Revolutionary War, the Captain Hiester referred to in the story of General Leopold Philip de Heister, of whom some account is given among the European Heisters.  After his exchange and release from the British prison ship, Joseph Hiester was made a colonel and finally, at the close of the war, a major general of Pennsylvania state militia.

General Joseph Hiester was a member of the convention in 1789, which framed the second constitution of the state of Pennsylvania, under which he was repeatedly elected to the legislature, either in the House of Representatives or the Senate.  He was also Governor of Pennsylvania in 1820.

2.        Joseph Hüster

Joseph Hüster, the second son of Johannes and Catherine Hüster, was born at Elsoff, Germany, about the year of 1710.  He is also called Jost or Yost.

He and his brother Daniel, in the company of four hundred and thirty Palatinates, men, women and children, sailed from Rotterdam, Holland, in the ship St. Andrew, a galley commanded by John Stedman as Master.  The ship stopped at Cowes, Isle of Wight, England, on the way.  Arriving at Philadelphia, he signed the declaration of allegiance to his majesty King George II of Great Britain on September 26, 1737, as “Jost Hüster”.

He settled first at Goshenhoppen with his brother John and afterward went with him to the new land they had purchased in Bern Township, Berks County.

He married Elizabeth Strunk, an American woman.  Children: John, John Christian, Catherine, Daniel (November 5, 1761), Ann Eliza, Joseph, and William.  Little is known of his children.  They did not rise in prominence in the affairs of state or nation, as did their cousins.  Doubtless, they were quiet, industrious, home-loving country folk and good substantial citizens.

He died in Berks County in 1772 or 1777, the uncertainty of the date probably being due to the fact that the old German 2 and 7 resemble somewhat.

3.        Daniel Hüster

Daniel Hüster, the third and youngest son of Johannes and Catherine Hüster, was born at Elsoff, Germany January 1, 1713, and was baptized January 7, 1713.  He died at Reading, Pennsylvania, June 7, 1795.

He accompanied his brother Joseph to America in 1737, but, on account of sickness, he was unable to take the oath of allegiance to the King of England until several days after his brother and was not permitted to land until he had done so.

He settled first at Goshenhoppen with his brothers and there bought a farm.  In 1774, having sold his farm to his son Daniel, he removed and joined his brother Joseph on the Berks County tract and, finally, took up his residence in Reading, PA.

On September 26, 1742, he was married to Catherine Schuler, who was born September 10, 1717, and died August 17, 1789.  His four sons, John, Daniel, Gabriel and William, gave service in the revolutionary War, the first three as officers.  After the war, John and Daniel were made major generals of militia in their respective districts in Pennsylvania.  These two also served in the United States Congress and Gabriel in the legislature of Pennsylvania.

Third HIESTER Generation - Daniel Hiester

Daniel Hiester, son of Joseph and Elizabeth Strunk Hüster, was born in Berks County, Pennsylvania, November 5, 1761, and died April 16, 1827.

He married:

§         Magdalena Albright; their son was John.  He married Barbara Kaufmann.

§         Susan Ammann.

Fourth HIESTER Generation – Joseph Hiester

Joseph Hiester was born February 3, 1790, and died December 31, 1878 (?)  He married Catherine Kantner, who was born October 3, 1789, and died February 14, 1854. 

Fifth HIESTER Generation – Daniel Hiester

Daniel Hiester was born in Berks County, Pennsylvania, May 1, 1814, and died June 11, 1887, at Boundary City, Jay County, Indiana, where his body was buried.

He was a pioneer settler at Boundary, which took its name from the boundary line established by the Treaty of Greenville, Ohio, in 1795, between General Anthony Wayne and the Indians of the Northwest Territory.  By this treaty, the land south of the line was to be open to unmolested settlement by the whites.

In company with others from Berks County, Pennsylvania, Daniel Hiester had first gone to Fairfield County, Ohio, in 1837.  Then, desiring to take up a homestead, he went to the United States land office at Cincinnati.  Finding that the only available land was north of the boundary line referred to above, it was necessary for him to go to the land office at Ft. Wayne, Indiana, to secure the grant for the land he wanted.  He then returned to Ohio for his bride, whom he had married in 1839.  Most of the journey from Fairfield County to Cincinnati and Fort Wayne and back was made afoot.

In 1840, some of his wife’s relatives accompanied them to Boundary, helped them to erect a log house and then left them in their new home in the forest.

Here, like his ancestors in Pennsylvania, he cleared the land, farmed it and also started in business in 1851 with a small stock of goods at his home on section 23 in Pike Township, the first house built in the neighborhood.  Later, when he hoped a railroad would pass through the township, he built a small store and added to the stock of goods.  Many times he drove to Cincinnati, more than a hundred miles away, for his stock in trade.  He prospered and, eventually, acquired more property.  In 1868, he built the largest flourmill in the county.

He also built a fine residence and a brick store 42 by 62 feet, with two stories and a third floor as a community hall.  He took his two sons into partnership with him, giving each of them a one-third interest.  Daniel sold his interest to his brother Henry, who took over the whole business after his father’s death.

He became a leading citizen, organizer of the St. Paul Reformed Church at Boundary and was an elder there from its beginning in 1846.  He was postmaster from 1852 till 1887 almost continuously and was a man of prominence and influence in the community and its enterprises. 

He married (1). Their children were (married, she died in), (died), (born, died, married), (born), Henry (born February 25, 1848), (married), (married, born, died).

§         Sarah Langel, August 29, 1839.  She was born May 4, 1818, and died November 7, 1854.

§         Anna Bailey, August 23, 1856, who died December 31, 1872.

§         Mrs. Esther (Reed) Abel-Stewart. Albert R. Abel

First FRICKEL Generation – Johann Konrad Frickel

Johann Konrad Frickel was born in Hesse Cassel, Germany, in December 1804, and died in Jay County, Indiana, February 14, 1851.  His body was interred at Boundary, Indiana.

In 1829, he was married to Mary Jane Kahn, who was born in Hesse Cassel, February 14, 1809, and died in Jay County, Indiana, February 14, 1873, and was buried at Boundary.

In 1838, they immigrated with two children to Marion County, Ohio, and thence to Jay County, Indiana.  Here follows a transcript and translation of their passport:

The passport bears seals and dates as follows, which show the way he took out of Germany.  Gelnhausen, 2 Mai, 1838; Frankfort-am-Main, 3 Mai 1838; Coblenz, 8 Mai 1838; Aachen 14 Mai 1838; Liege, Belgium 19-Mai 1838 through Louvain to Antwerp.

Here is Conrad Frickel’s statement when he was naturalized as an American citizen:

“I am a native of the State of Hesse Cassel in Germany, was born in December, 1804, being now about 39 years of age, migrated from Hannow (Hanau) on the 6 day of May, 1838, and arrived in New York City on the 6^th day of July, 1838, and owe my allegiance to the governing powers of Hesse Cassel, and I do also declare that it is my bona fide intention to become a citizen of the United States of America and of the state of Indiana and to renounce forever all allegiance and fidelity to every foreign Prince, Potentate, State or Sovereignty whatsoever and particularly the governing powers of the State of Hesse Cassel, a subject of whom I now am.  (signed) Conrad Frickel

This statement was signed and sworn to July 1, 1843, and on October 10, 1845, records of the Jay County Probate Court show that he had been admitted to citizenship.

Children:

Second FRICKEL Generation – Sarah Frickel

Sarah Frickel was born near Boundary City, Jay County, Indiana, January 20, 1848.

Her mother, bereft of a husband, two sons and a daughter all in a month from the dreaded milk sickness, has a severe struggle to take care of her four other children, the oldest of whom was a little girl under twelve.  The children, therefore, early learned to be industrious and thrifty.

At the age of twenty-one, Sarah Frickel was married to Henry Hiester on September 23, 1869, at Hillgrove, Darke County, Ohio, by the Rev. John Stuck.

She was a capable housewife and mother, rearing her children well, and was also a hospitable hostess; entertaining ministers and others who made her home their stopping place when visiting the village of Boundary.  She was an active member of the St. Paul’s Reformed Church of Boundary and afterward of the First Reformed Church of Bluffton, Indiana.

She died at her home in Bluffton, March 20, 1934, and was buried at Boundary.

Sixth HIESTER Generation – Henry Hiester

Henry Hiester was born at Boundary City, Jay County, Indiana, February 25, 1848.

He was educated in the public schools and at Liber College near Portland, Indiana.

He was married September 23, 1869, to Sarah Frickel, by the Rev. John Stuck at Hillgrove, Ohio.

Like his father, he was both farmer and merchant, being associated with his father in business and afterward succeeding him in the general store at Boundary.  He was also postmaster in his turn.

He was an earnest Christian and devoted to the church.  He was an active member and an elder of the St. Paul’s Reformed Church at Boundary, sang in its choir and was superintendent of its Sunday school.

In 1896, he disposed of the store at Boundary ad removed to Pennville, Indiana, where he kept a grocery store.  In the spring of 1900, he moved again to Bluffton, Indiana, and engaged in the furniture business until his retirement, November 1, 1916.

At Bluffton also he was active in the First Reformed Church, serving as an elder and as treasurer and as a teacher in the Sunday school.

He died May 25, 1919, and was buried in the family burial plot at Boundary.

Seventh and Eighth HIESTER Generations

Children:

1.        Llana Del, born at Boundary July 14, 1870, died January 25, 1873 and was buried at Boundary.

2.        Charles Nacourtney, born at Boundary, February 13, 1872.  He married:

§         Cora Belle Hathaway, who was born November 20, 1874, and died March 21, 1909. 

§         Jennie Arnold on April 22, 19ll.

He died September 21, 1936; was buried at Bremen.

3.        Jesse Jay, born at Boundary, January 9, 1874; married Cora A. Lyons, January 19, 1895.