Joseph Hiester (November 18, 1752 – June 10, 1832) was an American politician, who served as the fifth governor of Pennsylvania from 1820 to 1823.

He received a common-school education when he was not working on the farm, and became a clerk in a store in Reading run by Adam Whitman.

[3] At the beginning of the American Revolutionary War, he raised and equipped in that town a company with which he took part in the battles of Long Island and Germantown.

After Peter Muhlenberg resigned from the U.S. Senate in 1801, Hiester was one of two major candidates to replace him, but was overwhelmingly defeated by George Logan.

He surprised partisans and opponents by making appointments strictly on merit rather than party affiliation.