Category: WCHS

The local history book, “Reflections of our Memories,” a book about memories of Crab Orchard and surrounding areas published in 1994 has been indexed and added to our Master Local History Index.

The book was put together in 1994 by a history committee and the book was available through the Crab Orchard Library. Contents include brief histories of many of the local school districts, cemeteries, churches and villages around and including Crab Orchard. The majority of the book is based on interviews conducted by the committee with older Crab Orchard area citizens.

The Marion Garden club made a $150 donation to the Williamson County Historical Society on Friday, June 2, 2023. Presenting the check from the garden club was president Debbie Lattuca to WCHS president Sam Lattuca. The local garden club plants flowers in the pots at the entrance to the museum and library as well as making a monetary donation.

The Williamson County Historical Society has just published two more cemetery audit volumes created by Helen Sutt Lind. The books are called “Those in God’s Green Acres” volume one and volume two.

Volume one contains the audits of 15 cemeteries from 4 townships. The cemeteries include: Cundiff, Dewmaine, Duncan, Boyd, Perry, Hendrickson, Strunk, Becker, White Ash, Shiloh, Dillingham Shed, Zion, Bethel, Locust Grove and Liberty Number 8.

Volume two contains the audits of 32 cemeteries from 6 townships. The cemeteries include: Hinchcliff, Russell, County Poor Farm, Stroud, Worley, Motsinger, Susan Allen, Crossroads, Krieger, Hanks, Bethlehem, Norman, Pritchett, Newton, Perry, Trout, Creal Springs, Moses Atwood, Willis Bridges, Goddard, Herring, Cocke, Drake, Ann Burns, Bolton-Trammell, Till Parks, Croslin, Simmons, Spring Hill and Ferrell.

The books are now available through the Williamson County Historical Society in softback for $25. The indexes to these books have been added to our Master Cemetery Index.

A doctoral dissertation completed in 2005 by Masatomo Ayabe entitled “The Ku Klux Klan Movement in Williamson County” has been indexed and is available for study in our library. The dissertation paints a very complete picture of the political and social environment in the county prior to the Klan’s arrival and details why the organization was able to land on such fertile ground in the county. The book primarily covers from 1923 through 1926. The index has been added to our Local History Master Index.

Do you have back issues of the Marion Living Magazine in your home? If so, the museum would like to fill out their collection. The needed back issues are listed below:

2009, May – June

2010, Jan – Feb – Apr – May – Jun – Aug – Sep – Oct – Nov -Dec

2011, Feb – Mar – Apr – May – Jun – Jul – Aug – Sep -Oct – Nov -Dec

2012 ? We Have January

The Washington school 5th grade classes visited the museum to learn about local history and the lives of earlier people on May 3, 4, 5 & 12, 2023. The classes were attended by Washington school teachers Ms. Reynolds, Mr. Vickery, Ms. Holderfield and Ms. Shoukletevich. Each of the four touring classes had about 18 students. All of the students were presented with a small workbook to point out prominent facts about the musuem and local county history.

A couple from Oberwiesen, Germany along with local tour guide visited WCHS Museum today while on their 3 week visit to the U.S.

The local history books “Maranda” and “Horse and Buggy Days” have had their indexing added to our Master Local History Index.

Debra S. Johnson, stopped by the WCHS museum on May 5th, 2023, to drop off a copy of her newly published book, “The Marshall Crain Story.” One year ago, Debra was at the WCHS museum/library gathering up facts to include in her new book.

For those who may not remember, in the early 1870’s in this county, there was a Hatfield/McCoy type event called the “Bloody Vendetta.” Blocks of families from the Carterville/Cambria area chose sides in inflicting revenge against each other over a number of years. The feud culminated int 1875 with the murder of William Spence, a Carterville shop keeper and ex Williamson County sheriff, George W. Sisney who was then living in Carbondale to avoid becoming a victim. Both men were found to have been murdered by Marshall Crain and in the spring of 1876, Crain became the first man in Williamson County to be publicly hung.

Debra has spun a historical fiction around Marshall Crain based on historical facts, family stories and supposition to create an intriguing story. The book is available on Amazon.com for $17.95.

The Williamson County Historical Society held its first membership meeting since the beginning of the Covid pandemic on Sunday, May 7^th, 2023 at its museum/library located at 105 S. Van Buren St. in Marion.

The membership meeting was conducted by society president, Sam Lattuca who brought the membership up to date on the society’s museum and library activities since the shutdown in the spring of 2020. Parts of the report included building maintenance, its website, museum display room updates, books published, new items introduced into the museum and the status of its membership as well as ongoing and upcoming projects.

The program for the meeting was conducted by Marion resident and society member, Charla Murphy who gave a talk about the short lived 128^th Illinois Infantry founded in the county not long after John A. Logan’s speech on the Marion public square in the fall of 1862 during the Civil War. The 128^th has often been maligned through history and jokingly called the ‘wang dang doodles’ due to what appeared to be a mismanaged and highly disorganized unit with a high desertion count.  Murphy, however, through reading newspapers of the time, government reports, regimental records and pension reports made the case that there was another far more complicated side to the story that involved potential sabotage by confederate sympathizers, failure of leadership and political intrigue.

The historical society’s museum/library is open to the public for tours or genealogy research Wednesday through Saturday from 9:30 A.M. till 3:00 P.M.