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William Muhlenberg Hiester, son of the celebrated physician, Dr. Isaac Hiester, was born in Reading, May 15, 1818. His maternal grandfather was Gen. Peter Muhlenberg, of Revolutionary fame. His mother, Hetty Muhlenberg, died in 1872, at the advanced age of eight-eight years. He received a preparatory training at the West Nottingham Academy in Maryland, and subsequently entered Bristol College in Pennsylvania, graduating in 1837, in the second and last class of graduates from that institution. He read law in the office of Judge Banks, attended a course of lectures in the Law Department of Harvard College, and was admitted to the Bar at Reading, Jan. 7, 1840. The honorary degree of A. M. was conferred upon him in 1843 by Harvard College. He practised his profession four years in Erie, Pa., in 1845 returning to Reading, and associating himself with the Hon. Henry A. Muhlenberg, and soon acquired a large practice. In 1852 he was elected by the Democratic party as a member of the State Senate, and served until 1855, taking foremost rank among the Democratic members. At the opening of the session of 1855, after an exciting contest, he was elected speaker of the Senate on the twenty-seventh ballot. His career as speaker was dignified, firm and impartial. In January, 1858, he was appointed secretary of the Commonwealth by Gov. William F. Packer, and continued in that office during the administration of three years. He supported Stephen A. Douglas for President of the United States in the campaign of 1860, but subsequently earnestly advocated the administration of Abraham Lincoln and was a warm friend of the Union. In the summer of 1863, when Pennsylvania was being invaded by General Lee, Mr. Hiester was appointed by Gov. Curtin one of the mustering officers, with the rank of major, to muster in troops that volunteered for ninety days' service, in response to the Governor's proclamation of June 26, 1863, calling for sixty thousand men. He was assigned to duty at the temporary rendezvous on the Agricultural Fair Grounds at Reading, which, in compliment to him, was designated Camp Hiester. In the execution of his military commission he mustered into the State service eight full regiments of volunteers, comprising an aggregate force of eight thousand men. After the war he supported the Republican party, and in 1864 was the Republican candidate for Congress in the Berks county District. After this event, he retired from participating in public affairs, and devoted his attention to the benevolent and business interests of his native city. He was a director in the Reading Library Company, in the Charles Evans Cemetery Company and the Reading Gas Company, and a liberal supporter of the public and private charities of the city. He died in Reading Aug. 16, 1878, leaving a widow and a son Isaac, who is a practising attorney at Reading. Source: Historical and Biographical History of Berks County, Morton Montgomery, p. 331 |