Some months ago, Sam Lattuca, president of the Williamson County Historical Society reported a story to the Marion Star newspaper about how DeYoung Street in Marion got its name. As a short recap, in 1899 a man named Teunis DeYoung came to Marion with his wife, son and daughter in law and agreed to purchase over 150 acres of Marion near the Marion Cemetery with a Bond for Deed. However, an unknown change of plans a couple of years later changed that plan and the deal never completely went through. DeYoung was a Dutch immigrant, then living in South Holland, Illinois south of Chicago.

All these generations later, the great, great grandson of Teunis, Dan DeYoung and his wife Julie, recently visited Lattuca at the Williamson County museum on S. Van Buren Street to compare notes about the transaction from over 120 years ago. Dan is a retired police detective from Evansville, Indiana and has written two books about the DeYoung family or DeJong as it is known in Holland. Dan stated that DeJong in Holland is a common name not unlike Smith here. He also noted that of all the research he has done on Teunis and his family, that nothing had ever been known of the transaction and is still trying to figure it out. Both Dan and Lattuca agreed that since the purchase was mostly centered around the old C& EI railroad tracks running north out of town it had to be related to a planned commercial investment project that got foiled for some reason and never got off the ground.

Lattuca pointed out that in Marion’s early days, DeYoung Street was pretty much a backwater street that ended up developing into Marion’s major artery when new Route 13 was developed to bypass Marion’s downtown section. New Rt. 13 first bypassed Marion’s downtown business district in 1962.

To see the original DeYoung Street story click here.