HOFSTETTER, WILLIAM CHRIS. - One of the prospering business enterprises of Virginia, Ill., which controls an excellent trade in this village and the surrounding country is the Hofstetter-Carls Lumber Company, the president and manager of which, William Chris Hofstetter, is known as an energetic and enterprising business man and a citizen who has done much to develop the community's commercial and industrial interests. Mr. Hofstetter was born on a farm in Cass County, Ill., December 24, 1865, and is a son of Bartholomew and Fannie (Hardy) Hofstetter.

Bartholomew Hofstetter was born at Gois, Switzerland, and emigrated to the United States in young manhood, locating in Cass County when twenty-six years of age. Here he was married to Miss Fannie Hardy, and they continued to make their residence on the family homestead during the remainder of their lives. William C. Hofstetter was reared amid rural surroundings and while assisting his father on the homestead during the summer months secured his education in the district schools during the winter terms. When he laid aside his school books, Mr. Hofstetter concentrated his energies upon tilling the soil until 1903, in that year coming to Virginia and becoming interested in business pursuits. Here he engaged in the lumber and grain business, and bought land adjoining the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad tracks, opposite the station, where he has erected large and substantial buildings for storing and sale of lumber, paints and all kinds of builders' supplies and materials, and has also a large and well-equipped grain elevator. On March 1, 1912, the business was incorporated as the Hofstetter-Carls Lumber Company, with a capital of $10,000, his partners in this enterprise being his former clerk, A. B. Carls, and Mrs. Mary Hofstetter, his wife, and they continue as the sole stockholders and directors. Mr. Hofstetter being president and manager and Mr. Carls secretary and treasurer. Recently the company has purchased the property and coal business formerly owned by C. E. Paul, this property being located across the street from the lumber plant. Mr. Hofstetter has stock in the Beardstown State Bank, and also in the Little Indian and the Literberry grain elevators. In his business transactions Mr. Hofstetter has always adhered to the strictest integrity, and his standing among his associates is correspondingly high.

In 1890 Mr. Hofstetter was married to Miss Mary Schmitt, the only daughter of Casper and Catherine (Mieries) Schmitt. They have one son, Neil Fred, now a student in the Virginia public schools. Mrs. Hofstetter was born May 4, 1867. Her parents were natives of Germany, the father being born in Bavaria and the mother in Hesse-Darmstadt. The father had learned the trade of cabinetmaking in his native land, and after locating at Beardstown, Ill., engaged in the furniture business, which he followed until the time of his death, July 28, 1900, when he was eighty-three years of age. The mother passed away in February, 1898, aged seventy years. They were consistent members of the Catholic church, and both were laid to rest in the cemetery at Beardstown. Mr. and Mrs. Hofstetter live in their attractive residence on the south side, Virginia, Ill.