Meet Lester Edinger

Last year, the McHenry County Historical Society & Museum celebrated 60 years of collecting, preserving, and sharing its county's history with the public. To commemorate this anniversary, our featured exhibit, “60 Years, 60 Objects: Stories from McHenry County,” remains on display through October 2024. This exhibit highlights sixty artifacts from the historical society’s collection. Object #46 is an olive drab army uniform worn by Lester Edinger during World War I. 

 Many sources note that Lester Edinger wore this World War I uniform on horseback as Grand Marshall of the Woodstock and Greenwood Memorial Day parades for many years. 

Lester Edinger, a son of Adam and Catherine Edinger, was born in Hebron, Indiana on December 21, 1893. Following the death of her husband, Catherine “Kitty” Edinger moved her family to Woodstock, Illinois where young Lester became a drill press operator at the typewriter factory. He joined the Illinois National Guard in Woodstock and was called into service in Texas under John J. Pershing.

 Lester was called up in 1917 and served in Company “G” of the 129^th Infantry in the 33^rd Division (the noted “Rainbow” division). He did notable service during the war. He was viewed as a war hero upon his return home. He was a cofounder of a new ex-servicemen’s group in Woodstock called the “American Legion.” He married the well-regarded Marion Marble of Greenwood in 1919. He soon parlayed his position as a popular war hero into a political career. Through the 1920s into the1960s he served in a variety of McHenry County government positions, being remembered mostly as the Sheriff of McHenry County. Lester Edinger died in Sunnyvale, California on January 11, 1984. His body was returned to Woodstock for burial with his parents in Woodstock’s Oakland cemetery.

 Visit the McHenry County Historical Society’s Museum to view the WW I uniform and the other 60^th anniversary objects on display during museum hours.