A son of William Hiester, Sr. and Anna Maria (Myer) Hiester, William Hiester Jr. was born in Berne, Pennsylvania on October 10, 1790. After attending the local, public schools, he became a farmer and merchant in Lancaster County.[4]
On February 8, 1824, he wed Lucy Ellmaker (1797-1854).[5] As a member of the prominent Ellmaker family, she was the only child of Isaac Ellmaker (1762-1830) and Christiana Ellmaker (1764-1802). William and Lucy Hiester's son, Isaac Ellmaker Hiester, who was born in New Holland, Lancaster, Pennsylvania on May 29, 1824, would go on to become a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.[6][7]
During the early and mid-1820s, Hiester practiced law in Lancaster County. His duties including assisting clients with the resolution of family estate matters.[11] He was also active in local politics and government, serving as Lancaster County Justice of the Peace from 1823 to 1828 and as Secretary of the State Caucus for the Anti-Masonic Convention in 1828.[12]
Although Hiester ran unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in 1819[13] and 1828, he was a successful Anti-Masonic Party candidate for Congress in 1830, serving three terms from March 4, 1831 to March 4, 1837.[14][15][16] During his tenure, he advocated for various economic reform measures, including tariffs[17] and the "re-establishment of a sound National Currency."[18]
Hiester was then appointed as a delegate to the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention, 1837-1838,[19] remained active with Democratic Anti-Masonic politics,[20] subsequently served in the Pennsylvania State Senate for the 6th district from 1840 to 1842,[21] and was elected Speaker of the Pennsylvania Senate in 1842.[22]
Later years
During the final phase of his life, Hiester devoted his time to farming.[23] He also remained active in local politics[24][25] and in charitable and civic affairs.[26][27]
Illness, death and burial
Sometime during the final decade of his life, Hiester fell ill with a disease which caused paralysis.[28] After several years of worsening health, he died from Apoplexy at his home in New Holland, Pennsylvania on October 13, 1853.[29] He was interred at the Lancaster Cemetery in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
In 1854, a large, four-piece monument was erected above the graves of William Hiester and his wife, Lucy. In addition to a roughly eleven-foot-tall obelisk adorned with a wreath of lilies and roses and marked with the Hiester surname in raised letters, a die "beautifully worked, the top ... finished with scrolls and carving, and on each of the four narrow sides ... a scroll Console highly ornamented," and a roughly four-foot-tall plinth supporting the console, with a roughly five-by-twelve-inch base. Crafted from Italian marble, it reportedly weighed 18,000 pounds.[30]
References
^"William Hiester" (biography). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Senate, retrieved online October 25, 2022.
^William Hiester, in "Notice." Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Lancaster Intelligencer, November 18, 1825, p. 4 (subscription required).
^"William Hiester" (biography), Pennsylvania State Senate.
^"Berks County Federal Ticket," in "Democratic Ticket." Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Lancaster Intelligencer, September 25, 1819, p. 3 (subscription required).
^"William Hiester" (biography), Pennsylvania State Senate.
^"Twenty-Second Congress." Lancaster, Pennsylvania: The Lancaster Examiner, November 17, 1831, p. 2 (subscription required).
