Biography - CHESTER ARTHUR McCLURE
A well-managed and up-to-date mercantile establishment is one of the
most valuable institutions a community can possess and contributes in marked
degree to its prosperity and standing and also to the pleasure and
convenience of living. One of the most successful and enterprising of the
mercantile businesses of Edwards county is that of which Chester Arthur
McClure is proprietor and manager. He is following in the footsteps of his
honored father, who from 1883 until his death in 1905 operated a ' general
mercantile store in this place. The subject is of pioneer stock in this
section and may point to an ancestral record distinguished for its
patriotism and good citizenship, and in these qualities he shares, being a
veteran of the Spanish-American Avar and a young man whose hand is extended
toward all public-spirited measures.
Mr. McClure was born at Dexter, in Effingham county, September 19, 1885, the
son of G. W. McClure. The grandfather was a native of Maryland and of
Scotch-English descent. However, he early left his native heath and came to
the west, and his son, the subject's father, was born within the boundaries
of Edwards county. The first of the McClures in Illinois was among the
forty-niners, making the trip overland to California in that year, but soon
returning and devoting his energies to Illinois agriculture, finding far
greater peace and happiness in the tilling of the soil than in the quest of
gold. When the Civil war cloud broke, plunging the nation into sorrow and
devastation, he enlisted and served under the flag of the cause he believed
to be just as a member of an Illinois regiment.
The subject's father, after his marriage, removed to Dexter, Effingham
county, and there started a general mercantile business, which was destined
to meet with the best of fortunes and which he operated in Dexter for three
and a half years, until 1883. He then removed his business to Bone Gap, in
whose future he had all of confidence, and this business he operated until
his demise, its growth being continual and substantial. This fine citizen
was Republican in politics. Fraternally he was an Odd Fellow and a Mason. He
was active in church work and served in the affairs of the Methodist
Episcopal church, of which he was a member as steward, trustee and class
leader. In 1880 he married Susan J. Walser, daughter of James Walser, a
pioneer of Edwards county, she having been reared on a country estate about
a mile and a half east of West Salem. Three children were born to their
union, Chester A., a child who died in infancy and Flossie A., wife of
George W. Porter, of Bone Gap.
Mr. McClure of this review received his first introduction to Minerva in the
public schools of Bone Gap and Effingham and had his higher training in the
Southern Collegiate Institute. Subsequently he completed a business course
in the Austin Business College at Effingham in 1900. Previous to that he
served in the Spanish-American war, being mustered into the service on June
28, 1898, as a member of Company G, Ninth Illinois Volunteer Regiment. He
was on detached duty at brigade headquarters under Brigadier General Douglas
and Brigadier General Kribben, being stationed at Jacksonville, Savannah and
Havana, Cuba. He was mustered out May 20. 1899, with the rank of mounted
orderly.
Upon the return of peace Mr. McClure came back to his home town, and after
the business course at Effingham, mentioned previously, he went to Detroit
and engaged in the machinist's trade, working at the Bayer plant of the
Chicago Pneumatic Tube Company. He was subsequently employed by various
automobile companies, the Packard Company, etc., and was also in the employ
of the Burroughs Adding Machine Company. He resided for a considerable
period in Detroit, from August, 1901, to September 14, 1905. Upon the demise
of his father Mr. McClure took charge of the business of that gentleman and
he has shown the same good judgment and honorable and effective business
methods displayed by the elder gentleman. The stock carried at the present
time is an excellent one and exceeds $6,000.
Mr. McClure is a prominent lodge man and finds pleasure and profit in
fraternal association with his fellows. He belongs to the Masonic lodge, No.
866, at West Salem; Monitor Lodge, No. 235, Independent Order of Odd
Fellows, at Bone Gap; the Modern Woodmen of America, No. 648, of whose
counsel he is a member; Ben Hur and the Rebekahs. In religious faith he is a
member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
On June 13, 1909, Mr. McClure was happily married at Mt. Carmel, the lady of
his choice being Claribel J. Inskeep, daughter of Dr. J. E. Inskeep. They
have one daughter, Catherine Wilbur, born May 26, 1910. They are among the
most popular and highly regarded of the young people of the community and
maintain a pleasant and hospitable home.
Extracted 11 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from 1912 History of Southern Illinois, by George W. Smith, volume 3, pages 1669-1670.
