Hiester Clymer, of Reading, Pennsylvania, is a descendant of Richard Clymer, a shipping merchant and ship builder, of Philadelphia, who came from Bristol, England, in 1705. Richard Clymer had two sons, William and Christopher. The latter was the father of George Clymer, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. William, who was a mariner and a captain in the British Navy during the reign of George II, married Anna Roberdeau, a sister of General Daniel Roberdeau, of the Revolution, by whom he had but one child, Daniel Cunyngham Clymer, who was born in Philadelphia, in the year 1747, and educated to the law. After practising for some time at the Philadelphia bar, he came to Reading, several years before the Revolution, and was, up to the year 1800, one of the leading lawyers of Berks and the adjoining counties. He was Secretary of the meeting of "The officers and privates of the fifty-three battalions of the Associators of the Colony of Pennsylvania," at which George Ross presided, held at Lancaster on the memorable 4th of July, 1776, "to chose two Brigadier-Generals to command the battalions and forces in said colony," and at which his uncle, General Roberdeau, was elected First Brigadier-General. He was a Colonel and Deputy Commissary General of Prisoners during the Revolutionary War. His first commission, as a Lieutenant-Colonel, was issued by the Assembly of Pennsylvania, April 8th, 1776, and was signed by John Morton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He left one daughter, and two sons, William and Edward Tilghman Clymer. The latter married Maria Catharine, a daughter of William Hiester, of Bern township, Berks county, who was a cousin of Joseph Hiester, Governor of Pennsylvania from 1817 to 1820, and resided on his farm adjoining the village of Morgantown, in Caernarvon township, Berks county, at the time of his death, in 1831. Hiester Clymer, one of the sons of Edward T. Clymer, was born in Caernarvon township, Berks county, November 3d, 1827. He received his preliminary education at Reading, and graduated in 1847, at the College of New Jersey, (Nassau Hall) Princeton, at which institution his father and grandfather were also educated. He then commenced the study of the law, and was admitted to practice at the bar of Berks county, April 6th, 1849. In 1851, he went to Pottsville, Schuylkill county, where he remained five years in successful practice. In 1856, he returned to Reading. In 1860, he served as a member of the Board of Revenue Commissioners, and was a Delegate to the National Democratic Convention held at Charleston, in the spring of that year. In October, 1860, he was elected to the State Senate, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Benjamin Nunemacher. In October, 1861, he was elected for the full term; and in October, 1864, re-elected for a third term. His course as Senator was distinguished for dignity and courtesy of demeanor, readiness, force and eloquence in debate, and steadfast devotion to the best interests of the Commonwealth. His discussion with Senator A.K. McClure, in February, 1861, on the repeal of the tonnage tax on the traffic of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, brought him prominently before the people, and established for him an enduring reputation as a parliamentary debater and a statesman thoroughly informed in the grave questions of inter-state trade and domestic finance which that discussion involved. In March, 1866, he was nominated as the Democratic candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania, and immediately resigned his seat in the Senate. He made a vigorous and remarkably energetic canvass of the State, speaking to large meetings of his fellow-citizens in nearly every county, and everywhere making a deep impression upon them by the nervous eloquence of his speech and his frank and forcible presentation of the various issues upon which their decision was invoked. Although he received a larger vote than had ever been previously given to any Democratic candidate for the same office, his competitor, the late Governor Geary, was declared elected. In 1863, he was a Delegate to the National Democratic Convention, which met July 4th, in Tammany Hall, New York, and nominated Horatio Seymour for President. In the spring of 1870, on the organization of the Board of Public Charities, with supervisory powers over the treatment of the insane poor confined in the hospitals of the State, he was appointed by Governor Geary one of the Commissioners under the Act of Assembly creating that board--a graceful compliment from his former antagonist on the stump--in which position of trust he still continues. In the autumn of the same year, he visited Europe, and after a tour through England and the Continent, returned in the fall of 1871. In October, 1872, he was elected to represent the district of Berks county in the Forty-third Congress of the United States, and took his seat, December 1st, 1873. He is a member of the Committee on the Revision of the Laws; the Committee on Public Lands, and the Joint Committee on the Library of Congress. He was married, in 1856, to Elizabeth Mary, daughter of Matthew Brooke, of Birdsboro, Berks county, and had two children--a son and daughter--both of whom are deceased. Mrs. Clymer died in October, 1870.
Source: The Biographical Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania of the Nineteenth Century. Philadelphia: Galaxy Publishing Co., 1874, pp. 375-376.
Contributed by: Nancy.