Lester Prairie, Minnesota

Lester Prairie, the youngest village in McLeod county, is located in Bergen township, in the northeast portion of the county, on the Htuchinson division of the Great Northern railway. The village is situated in a beautiful level stretch of prairie comprising several sections, right in the heart of the Big Woods. The location of the town is a prehistoric lake bottom, as is evidenced by clam shells, snail shells, etc., that are found in the sand beneath the surface. The beautiful fringe of timber that still surrounds the town as a line of demarkation of the former lake shore is further evidence that before the advent of the white man the Indian paddled his canoe over the very spot now occupied by this thriving village. In the early days this spot was homesteaded by John N, Lester, father of Frank Lester, who is still a resident here. There was no indication of a settlement here until 1886, when the Great Northern built its Hutchinson line and ran the first train through in December of that year.

Passage source: History of McLeod County, Minnesota, published 1917.

The first newspaper established in Lester Prairie was the Journal, the first issue of which was published May 25, 1895. The paper was printed at the office of the Independent at Hutchinson and bore at its masthead the name of S. G. Petergon as publisher and William Kirkpatrick, then principal of the local schools, as local editor. In January, 1896, a printing plant was established here and the Journal was printed and published from its own office, with O. H. Smith as managing editor. During the following summer Messrs. Peterson and Smith traded the Journal to W. E. Talboys for the Glencoe Register and Mr. Talboys assumed charge of the local paper.

Passage source: History of McLeod County, Minnesota, published 1917.

In January, 1901, O. H. Smith, who had shortly before disposed of his interest in the Glencoe Register, came to Lester Prairie and established a second paper - the Lester Prairie News. The new paper had its office in the rear of the building then occupied by the Journal, which is now known as The News block. The first issue of the News was published January 18, 1901. In June of the same year Mr. Talboys discontinued the Journal, sold the subscription list and "good will" to the News and moved the Journal plant to Chisholm, on the iron range, where he established a new paper. The Lester Prairie News has been published continuously since its establishment by its founder and now occupies almost the entire lower floor of the brick building known as the News block. It has a standard linotype composing machine and other up-to-date machinery and equipment and is classed as the best equipped printing plant in any of the smaller towns of this section.

Passage source: History of McLeod County, Minnesota, published 1917.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Lester Prairie City - it names this place 16 more 16 times.