Biography
Isaac E. Hiester was born in New Holland, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania on May 29, 1824. He graduated fromIllness, death, burial and tributes
On January 28, 1871, Isaac E. Hiester suffered a stroke which left him paralyzed. Lingering "in a semi-conscious condition, never speaking, but being able to recognize the friends who gathered around his bed in anxious solicitude," he died at his home in Lancaster on February 6, 1871, and was buried at that city's Lancaster Cemetery. Within a day of his death, multiple tributes were written about him by attorneys, elected officials and other civic leaders, and published in local newspapers. More than fifty attorneys also attended the Lancaster Bar Association on February 7, 1871, "the largest of the kind, except that which assembled on the decease of President Buchanan, ever witnessed in Lancaster." Thomas E. Franklin, Esq., formerly Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, was the first to speak, noting:"I feel utterly incapable, sir, of performing, properly, the grave duty that I feel pressing upon me. It is a mournful task for me to rise here and announce to you, who knew him so well and esteemed him so highly, the sudden decease of Isaac E. Hiester.... The unexpected blow unnerves and overpowers me.... His was the highest sense of honor, his was the purest integrity.... He was generous without a spark of ostentation in his charity; he could not see suffering without relieving it."Oliver James Dickey, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, said of Hiester:"Death of Hon. Isaac E. Hiester-Meeting of the Bar," ''Lancaster Intelligencer'', February 7, 1871.
"The descendant on his father's side of one of the oldest and best German families of the State, and of another almost as old and as well-known on the part of his mother; an only son ... born to wealth and highly educated, this great country looked to see what career Isaac E. Hiester would carve out for himself.... His word was as good as his bond, and no man's bond was better. In his professional career he adopted the highest standard of professional morals, and he lived religiously up to his creed. No man's cause was hindered, or delayed from malice, or for lucre by him. He kept his lightest promises sacred, and was especially careful to do so if they might be to the advantage of his opponent or to his own prejudice.... He always brought complete preparation to the trial of his causes, and was equally distinguished for that whether he appeared before a jury or a court of the last resort.... He was a worthy son of that great German race, which has given to Pennsylvania its best Governors, and which has converted this wide county, and almost the whole eastern part of this State, into a garden."Samuel H. Reynolds, former Lancaster city solicitor, said:
"I cannot remain silent beside his open coffin. He possessed a peculiar eloquence which was calculated to sway both Court and jury, was a man of the highest honor and elevated character. In private life he displayed all the finer feelings of human nature. This Bar has met with irreparable loss in the death of Mr. Hiester.... He needs no eulogy. His virtues will outlive the marble which may mark his last resting place, and his memory will be preserved when the pillars of this temple of justice, in which his eloquent voice was so often heard, shall have crumbled into dust."During the fall of 1871, a new lectern was installed in his memory at St. James Episcopal Church in Lancaster. It was described by local newspapers as "one of the finest specimens in sculpture in wood yet executed in this country," and featured an "eagle resting upon a massive pillar, with elaborate capital of black oak."
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* * * has a few lines on Isaac Ellmaker. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hiester, Isaac Ellmaker 1824 births 1871 deaths People from New Holland, Pennsylvania Hiester family Pennsylvania Dutch people Whig Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Democrats Pennsylvania lawyers Politicians from Lancaster, Pennsylvania 19th-century American lawyers Yale University alumni Burials in Pennsylvania