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Famous Residents
Pierre Menard was born near Montreal, Canada, on October 7, 1766. At the early age of 15 he joined a trading expedition to the untamed Illinois Country. By the early 1790's he had developed a thriving trade business in Chester. Menard, a successful fur trader and entrepreneur, went on to become Illinois’ first lieutenant governor in 1818. He died in 1844 at his home north of Chester.
Illinois’ first governor, Shadrach Bond, was born in Chester in 1773. He was elected to be Illinois’ first governor in 1818 with Kaskaskia as the Illinois state capital. In 1820 Governor Bond moved the capital to Vandalia. Chester has honored the governor with a white granite monument to mark his grave in Evergreen Cemetery.
Elzie Segar, creator of Popeye, is one of Chester’s most famous residents. He was born on December 8, 1894, in Chester. Young Segar learned to draw cartoons through a correspondence course. He based some of his comic characters on actual residents of Chester. By the late 1930's the Popeye comic strip was appearing in more than 600 newspapers and its popularity actually boosted spinach consumption by 33%. Segar died in 1938. A six-foot bronze Popeye statue was dedicated to Segar in 1977 and is located in Chester’s Segar Memorial Park.