Whiteside County IL Archives Biographies.....Chester, James K 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00003.html#0000719 January 31, 2008, 1:44 am

Author: Portrait/Bio Album, Whiteside County IL 1885

James K. Chester, dry-goods merchant at Sterling, was born at Henrietta, 
Lorain Co., Ohio, March 6, 1843, the fifth in a family of seven children. His 
father, Edwin Chester, a farmer, was born in Connecticut, came West first to 
Ohio, then to Michigan and Kansas, where he lived five years with a son, and 
finally, in 1880, to Sterling, where he died, March 29, 1885. His wife, nee 
Mary E. Porter, was a native of Massachusetts, and died in Ohio, in 1857. When 
18 years of age, Mr. Chester, the subject of this sketch, entered the college 
at Oberlin, Ohio, at which place he afterward engaged as a clerk in a store 
for six years; then for the two succeeding years he was a member of the firm 
of Reamer, Hubburd & Co., as proprietors of the same establishment. In 1869 he 
came to Sterling and, continuing in the same business, first was a member of 
the firm of Mills & Chester, then Ingersoll & Chester, until 1875, then of the 
Sterling Mercantile Company for five years, when he sold his interest in the 
latter and opened a dry-goods house on Third Street, under the firm name of J. 
K. Chester & Co., where he has since been prosecuting his business interests, 
with that marked degree of success which characterizes a solid man of 
business. He is a consistent member of the Congregational Church, a member of 
society in high standing and an influential citizen. He is a member of the A. 
O. U. W., of the I. O. M. A., and of the American Legion of Honor. He has a 
fine residence on Third Street. Oct. 11, 1866, is the date of his marriage to 
Miss Cynthia L. Ingersoll, and they have one daughter, Sophie I., born Jan. 
19, 1876.

Additional Comments:
Portrait and Biographical Album of Whiteside County, Illinois, Containing Full-
page Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative 
Citizens of the County. Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1885.

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