Heister, Joseph
soldier, statesman, was born Nov. 18, 1752, in Bern township, Pa. He was a member of the conof the convention which framed the constitution of 1776; served five years in the house and four in the senate of Pennsylvania . He was a member from Pennsylvania of the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth congresses. In 1807 he was appointed one of the two major-generals to command the Pennsylvania contingent, called for by the president. After this he retired from public life, but in 1814 his old constituency of Berks again elected him to the fourteenth congress, and reelected him to the fifteenth and sixteenth consixteenth congresses. In 1817 he ran for governor unsuccessfully, but three years afterward was elected, and served in that office until 1823. He died June 10, 1832, in Reading.