Hiester CLYMER, Congress, PA (1827-1884)

CLYMER, Hiester, (nephew of William Hiester and cousin of Isaac Ellmaker Hiester), a Representative from Pennsylvania; born near Morgantown, Caernarvon Township, Berks County, Pa., November 3, 1827; attended primary schools at Reading and was graduated from Princeton College in 1847; studied law; was admitted to the bar of Berks County April 6, 1849, and practiced in Reading and Berks County until 1851, when he moved to Pottsville, Schuylkill County; returned to Reading in 1856; represented Berks County on the board of revenue commissioners of the State in January 1860; delegate to the Democratic National Conventions at Charleston and at Baltimore in 1860; member of the State senate from October 1860 until March 1866, when he resigned; unsuccessful Democratic candidate for election as Governor in 1866; delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1868; member of the State board of charities in 1870; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-third and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1873-March 3, 1881); chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Department of War (Forty-fourth Congress), Committee on Appropriations (Forty-fourth Congress), Committee on Expenditures in the Department of State (Forty-sixth Congress); was not a candidate for renomination in 1880; after his retirement from Congress was vice president of the Union Trust Co. of Philadelphia and president of the Clymer Iron Co.; died in Reading, Pa., on June 12, 1884; interment in the Charles Evans Cemetery.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present