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File contributed to the Fulton County ILGenWeb Project
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Source: The Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Fulton County
Munsell Publishing Co., Chicago, 1908

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The Biography of Lester HOLLISTER 

[Surnames: ANDERSON, HOLLISTER, RAY] 

HOLLISTER, LESTER 

    
The junior member of the firm of Ray and Hollister represents the kind of business material to which the residents of Avon look for a maintenance of stable, progressive conditions. His largest usefulness lies in the future, as he now is but 27 years old, having been born on a farm in Fulton Co., March 17, 1879. He represents the third generation of his family in Fulton Co., his grandparents having arrived while it was still a wilderness, and with little to start with, succeeded to a large and fertile property. 
    
His father, Lawrence H. Hollister was born in Fulton County Sept. 22, 1858, and his mother Mary (Anderson) Hollister was born in the same county Oct. 8, 1857. For many years Lawrence H. Hollister has owned and operated a farm in Union Twp. of 160 acres in extent and well equipped with facilities for extensive gen- eral farming and stock-raising. 
    
As Lester Hollister grew to maturity he developed commercial rather than agricultural tendencies, and like his present business partner, began his active city life as clerk in a grocery store. He acquired a practical common school education in the town of Avon, and started his present grocery and meat business on Feb. 3, 1906. Because of his energy and sound business tactics he is bound to realize his ambitions. 
    
Mr. Hollister is social in his tendencies, is prominent among the Knights of Pythias, and in the Universalist Church. Politically he subscribes to the Republican party. He was one of the first to volunteer from Fulton Co., in the Spanish-American War, and creditably served through the greater part of the struggle as a member of Co. D, Sixth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He is popular and well-liked and has hosts of friends throughout the town and country.