Soldier Information
Name: Joseph Hiser
Alias:
Place of Birth: Jefferson KY Year of Birth: 1829
Occupation: Farmer
Eyes: Black Hair: Black Complexion: Black
Height in Feet: 5 Inches: 7.75
Enlistment Information
Enlistment Date: August 5, 1864
Enlistment Place: Bowling Green
Enlistment State: KY
Compiled Military Service Record
Document: View
Congressional District:
Company: B Regiment(s): 115th Regt USCI
Mustered Where: Bowling Green, Kentucky
Mustered Out Date: June 10, 1865
Rank at Muster Out: Private
Notes:
Joseph Hiser was a “new recruit” from Grayson County. He was mustered in at Bowling Green, KY, and shortly afterwards was sent with a detachment to Nashville, TN, and then to Virginia. In early 1865, he was on duty as the cook for Co. B. 115th USCI. His regiment was present for the siege of Petersburg and Richmond, VA, in spring of 1865. By late May 1865, Hiser was in the Balfour General Hospital in Portsmouth, VA with an unspecified illness. He was discharged from the hospital and due to his “disability,” was mustered out of the USCI on June 10, 1865 in Norfolk, VA. It should be noted that the CMSR incorrectly stated that Joseph Hiser was mustered out on February 19, 1866 in Indianola, Texas. This is the date when Co. B 115th Regiment USCI was mustered out as a group. Hiser had already been mustered out eight months earlier due to his medical disability. His CMSR noted that he “owed service to William Hiser.” The enslaver’s name was misspelled in the CMSR. The correct spelling of Joseph Hiser’s enslaver’s name was William Heyser. The soldier’s surname appears in various records with spelling variations including “Heiser,” “Hizer,” “Hieser,” “Heyser,” and “Hyser,” but his name most frequently appeared as either “Joseph Hiser” or “Joe Hiser.”
Soldier Death Information
Died in war? No
Military Death Date:
Military Death Location:
Military Cause of Death:
Death Date: August 1, 1891
Cause of Death: Consumption
Soldier Pension Information
Pension Card Link: Pension Card
Pension Application Date: February 12, 1877
Application No.: 231333 Certificate No.: 544365
Alternate First Name: Alternate Last Name:
Widow Pension Information
Widow Pension Card: Pension Card
Widow Application Date: August 17, 1891
Application No.: 525541 Certificate No.: 312913
No other family pension card found
Pension File Information
Pension File:
Pensioners:
Pensioner County: Marion Pensioner State: IN
Number of Pages:
Pension Notes:
Joseph Hiser applied for an invalid pension in 1877, but his application was not approved until April 1891, just four months before his death. The gap in time between his application date and approval date may be a reflection of rule changes regarding veterans’ pensions. On June 27, 1890, Congress enacted a law that granted “university disability” for all Union Army veterans (including USCT soldiers). This meant that veterans could qualify for an “invalid pension” regardless of when or how the disability occurred. Prior to 1890, soldiers had to prove that their disability was a result of their military service. Unfortunately for Joseph Hiser, this relaxation of pension requirements came just one year before his death in 1891. Within a week of his death, Hiser’s widow, Nancy Hiser, applied for her pension benefits and her pension was granted.
Newspaper clipping regarding Hiser’s pension:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tv3_DPNl5lq-2DAVFtD6NBynOEJXiCoZ/view?usp=share_link
Freedman’s Bank/Freedmen’s Bureau Information
No Freedman’s Bank information found
Notes from Freedmen’s Bureau Documents:
Freedmen’s Bureau documents reveal pivotal moments in Joseph Hiser’s life, and in the life of his family. In October, 1865, approximately four months after Joseph Hiser was discharged from the USCI due to a medical disability, he returned to Grayson County, KY to find that his son, Alonzo Hiser, was being held against his will in nearby Hart County by Jonathan Brashear, a man to whom Alonzo Hiser had been hired out. By October 1865, thanks to his service in the 115th USCI, Joseph Hiser was a free man–as was his wife and all of his children (including Alonzo), thanks to a law passed by the US Congress on March 3, 1865 that granted freedom to USCT veterans and families. But Jonathan Brashear was not willing to accept that fact. Undeterred, Joseph Hiser filed his protests with the Freedmen’s Bureau over his son’s treatment by Brashear but to no avail. Then Joseph Hiser took matters into his own hands, and he [from the Freedemen’s Bureau transcripts], “…recovered his son stealthily, & that on Oct. 17, 1865 said [Brashear] came to [his] house [in Grayson County] with three other men armed and ordered the son to get on the horse behind one of them on penalty of blowing out his brains & threatened the father with death if he came on the premises & said if any ‘nigger soldiers’ came they [Brashear & co.] were prepared for them & carried away said Alonzo forcibly.” It was a dramatic recounting of the events that freed Alonzo from unlawful enslavement and how Joseph and Alonzo Hiser escaped with their lives is astonishing. In the end, Jonathan Brasher was eventually arrested and sent to the military prison in Louisville in November 1865. To read more about Joseph and Alonzo Hiser, use this link to take you to the pages from Freedmen’s Bureau documents:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-T-lUtZnYG7uQNswB8_Isexe3fUVrSlV/view?usp=share_link
Family Information
Mother First Name: Ruth Mother Maiden Name:
Father First Name: Father Last Name:
Siblings: Samuel Heyser
Wife #1 First Name: Nancy Maiden Name:
Wife #2 First Name: Maiden Name:
Wife #3 First Name: Maiden Name:
Children: Alonzo Hiser 1851
Emma Hiser 1855
Samuel Hiser 1856
Moses Hiser 1858
Joseph Hiser 1860
George 1868 Hiser
Family Notes:
Joseph Hiser and his family lived in Millerstown, Kentucky (Grayson County). In the 1800s, Millerstown was a thriving grain milling and farming community, located about 15 miles west of Hammonville in Hart County. Hammonville was home to Jonathan Brashear, the man who held Alonzo Hiser against his will and threated both Joseph and Alonzo Hiser with violence in the fall of 1865.
Family Tree: View
1870 Census
1870 Census Link: View
1870 Profession: Farmer
1870 Live with/near former enslaver? Unknown
1870 Real Estate Value: 1870 Personal Estate Value: 275
1870 Ability to Read? Cannot read Ability to Write? Cannot write
1870 Census Notes:
In 1870, Joseph “Joe” Hiser was a 48-year-old farmer, living in Millerstown, KY (Grayson County), with his wife Nancy Hiser and their six children, ages 19 to two. No one in the household could read or write. Also living in Millerstown was Hiser’s mother, Ruth Hiser (1802-not before 1880), a servant living in the household of Margaret Wortham (1813-not before 1870). Joe Hiser’s enslaver, William Heyser did not reside in Millerstown in 1870, but at least one of the enslaver’s children, Daniel S. Heyser (1824-1881), did live in Millerstown.
1880 Census
1880 Census Link: View
1880 Profession: Farmer
1880 Live with/near former enslaver? No
1880 Ability to Read? Cannot read Ability to Write? Cannot write
1880 Census Notes:
In 1880, Joseph Hiser was incarcerated in the Indiana State Penitentiary in Michigan City, Indiana (LaPorte County). He was 47, and a farmer by profession. The cause for his imprisonment is unknown, but as a result of his unfortunate situation, his family was scattered in Kentucky and Indiana. In 1880, his wife Nancy Hiser and at least three of their children lived in Indianapolis, Indiana (Marion County). Joseph Hiser’s aged mother, Ruth Heyser, remained in Millerstown, KY, in the household of Samuel Heyser (1835-1900), the soldier’s brother.
1890 Census
1890 Census information not found
1900 Census
1900 Census Link: View
1900 Profession: Domestic Servant
1900 Ability to Read? Cannot read Ability to Write? Cannot write
1900 Own/Rent: Rent 1900 Home Free/Mortgage: Unknown 1900 Farm/House: House
1900 Census Notes:
Joseph Hiser died in August 1891. In 1900, his widow, Nancy Hiser, age 60 (Note: her birth year varies between 1826 to 1850 in Censuses taken between 1870 and 1900), lived at 774 Indiana Street in Indianapolis with Alonzo Hiser, 27 (listed as her son, but was actually her grandson whose father, also named Alonzo, lived next door), and two cousins: Wilbur Buckler and James Buckler, both born in Kentucky (whose relationship to the Hiser family has not yet been determined). Next door at 770 Indiana Avenue, was Joseph and Nancy Hiser’s son, Alonzo Hiser (1851-1916) and his wife, and five of their six children.
1910 Census
1910 Census Link: View
1910 Profession: Laborer
1910 Ability to Read? Can read Ability to Write? Can write
1910 Own/Rent: Rent 1910 Home Free/Mortgage: Unknown 1910 Farm/House: House
1910 Census Notes:
The soldier’s eldest son, Alonzo Hiser (spelled “Hieser” in this Census) 54, worked as a laborer in a foundry and lived at 770 Indiana Avenue in Indianapolis with his family which included his wife, three of their four children, and a grandson. Alonzo Hiser died in Indianapolis in 1916.
1920 Census
1920 Census Link: View
1920 Profession: Laundress
1920 Ability to Read? Can read Ability to Write? Can write
1920 Own/Rent: Rent 1920 Home Free/Mortgage: Unknown 1920 Farm/House: House
1920 Census Notes:
By 1920, Joseph Hiser’s son Alonzo Hiser was deceased, but at least two of his children, Ethel Hiser (1891-1954) and Nancy Hiser (1883-1931) were living in Indianapolis. In 1920, Ethel Hiser age 28, single, was the head of a household that included her son Raymond F. Hiser (1904-1946) age 14, working as a cobbler; sister Nancy Hiser, 38, single, working as a janitor at a local theatre; an aunt named Amanda Davis 47, widow, working as a laundress; and a lodger, Charles Tralor, 39, Black, single, who worked as a laborer. After 1920, Raymond F. Hiser operated a shoe repair shop in Indianapolis until his death in 1946. His son, Rev. Dr. Raymond F. Hiser Jr. (1934-2006) was an influential clergyman and social justice activist in Indianapolis.
Enslaver Information
Name: William Heyser Location: Grayson County, Kentucky
Previous Enslaver:
Enslaver Notes:
The Heyser family came to Kentucky from Shepherdstown (Jefferson County), Virginia (now West Virginia). Adam Heyser (1781-1846), father of the enslaver, owned a hat factory in Shepherdstown as early as 1803. The Heysers were enslavers in Shepherdstown and the Heysers brought enslaved persons with them when they moved to Kentucky around 1823. Included with those enslaved persons were Joseph Hiser and his mother Ruth Heyser. Two of enslaver William Heyser’s brothers remained in Grayson County after the Civil War: Thomas Heyser (1822-1899) operated the “Heyser House” hotel in Leitchfield; and Daniel Heyser (1824-1881), who was likely the last enslaver of Joseph Hiser’s mother, Ruth Heyser, lived in Millerstown.
1850 Enslaver Census
1850 Census Link: View
1850 Slave Schedule Link: View
1850 Number of Enslaved: 1
1860 Enslaver Census
1860 Census Link: View
1860 Real Estate Value: $5,300 1860 Personal Estate Value: $8,000
1860 Slave Schedule Link: View
1860 Number of Enslaved: 3
1870 Enslaver Census
1870 Census information not found
1880 Enslaver Census
Compensation Information
Compensation Application not found