Representative Jacob Hibshman

Jacob Hibshman (January 31, 1772 – May 19, 1852) was a Pennsylvania farmer, jurist, militia officer, businessman, and politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania’s 3rd congressional district from 1819 to 1821. He was also a familial elder to the founder of Ephrata National Bank, reflecting the longstanding civic and economic engagement of his family in the Ephrata area.

Hibshman was born on January 31, 1772, on a farm near Ephrata in the Province of Pennsylvania, then part of British America. Raised in a rural setting, he attended the common schools available in his community and later pursued further instruction at a private school in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. His early life and education were rooted in the agrarian and small-town culture of late eighteenth-century Pennsylvania, and he remained closely connected to the Ephrata area throughout his life.

After completing his schooling, Hibshman engaged in agricultural pursuits on and around his family’s land near Ephrata. His familiarity with local land, farming interests, and community affairs helped establish his reputation as a capable local leader. This standing led to his appointment as an associate judge of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, a position he held from 1810 to 1819. In 1817, Hibshman and his fellow judges of the court, Thomas Clark and Walter Franklin, were impeached on allegations of corruption. The charges were ultimately not sustained, and Hibshman and his colleagues were acquitted in the impeachment trial, allowing him to continue his public service.

Hibshman entered national politics as a member of the Republican Party of the era, commonly known as the Democratic-Republican Party. He was elected as a Republican to the Sixteenth Congress and served in the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania’s 3rd congressional district from 1819 to 1821. During this term, he represented a portion of southeastern Pennsylvania at a time when the young nation was grappling with issues of expansion, internal improvements, and the evolving balance between federal and state authority. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1820 to the Seventeenth Congress, which concluded his brief but notable period of congressional service.

Following his tenure in Congress, Hibshman remained active in public life and local affairs in Lancaster County. He served as deputy surveyor of Lancaster County for twenty years, a role that drew on his knowledge of land, property boundaries, and regional development. He also held office as a justice of the peace, further contributing to the administration of local justice and civil matters. In addition, he served as chairman of the board of canal appraisers, participating in the oversight and valuation of canal-related projects during an era when internal improvements and transportation infrastructure were central to Pennsylvania’s economic growth.

Hibshman’s public service extended to military and business endeavors. He served as a major general of the Pennsylvania Militia for twelve years, reflecting both his leadership abilities and the importance of state militias in the early nineteenth century. In the realm of commerce and finance, he helped organize the Northern Mutual Insurance Company in 1844 and served as its first president, demonstrating his engagement with emerging financial institutions and risk management in a developing regional economy. His role as a familial elder to the founder of Ephrata National Bank further underscored the Hibshman family’s influence in the economic life of Ephrata and its surroundings.

Jacob Hibshman spent his later years at his residence near Ephrata, remaining closely tied to the community where he had been born and where he had built his career. He died there on May 19, 1852. He was interred in the Hibshman Cemetery on the family farm near Ephrata, Pennsylvania, a resting place that reflects both his deep roots in the region and the enduring presence of the Hibshman family in local history.