What’s New

In the days before there was a “New route 13,” all westbound vehicle traffic left Marion by way of a two-laned paved road we now call “Old 13.”

Where this Route 13 was intersected by Route 148, which came south from Herrin, the westbound road split in two. One lane veered off toward the north in a curving path shaped somewhat like the letter “Y.” This type of interchange was therefore commonly known as “the wye.”

South of this wye, the sprawling and secret Illinois Ordnance Plant was built. The plant manufactured ammunition for the Allies during World War II. The route 13/148 intersection was its main entrance. Older residents can still remember the security police gatehouse and barriers standing across the road there, during the 1940’s.

Today, the ammunition factory grounds, once known as “Ordill,” have been incorporated into the Crab Orchard Wildlife Refuge.

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We recently finished working on old court records that were left over from our original accounting of early court records in our possession. It was found that we had about 1,950 court records of a miscellaneous nature. Those records have now been sorted and indexed into two categories.

The first group is strictly related to land deeds and mortgages and consists of all type of deeds, including quit claim, warranty, tax, sheriff’s  and administrator’s deeds along with property mortgage records. There were 4,395 names entered in this group

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The Williamson County Historical Society held a membership meeting on Sunday, July 26^th at the museum/library at 105 S. Van Buren St. Society president, Sam Lattuca, brought the membership and guests up to speed on the society’s past and upcoming projects, in addition to showing them the latest accessions that were brought into the museum.  Lattuca stated that the photo database in use at the museum now sits at 12,372 photos in the collection and the index of names used for research at the museum has risen to 625,967 entries.

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The Williamson County Historical Society will be holding a membership meeting on Sunday, July 26th, 2026 here at the museum/library at 2:00 P.M.

During the meeting we will be going over projects undertaken at the museum & library since the last meeting, accessions taken in, upcoming projects and the state of the museum. The program will be conducted by Mark Motsinger of the Illinois Historical Society entitled  “Old Soldier’s Reservation and early migration patterns in Southern Illinois.”

There is now a row of restricted parking located in the parking lot on the south side of the museum. There are signs indicating that vehicles will be towed so use caution when visiting the museum.

As a reminder, our yearly WCHS membership dues are due and run from January thru December and are $25 per year. You can check the status of your dues by looking at the year date on the last mailing you received from us. If you’re dues are current it will say 2026 or higher, if it says 2025 or earlier, your dues are due. We hope to see you at the meeting.

Williamson Co Historical Society and Museum would like to thank John Marczewski and Colleen Allard for a recent donation of a headmasters desk out of Colp High School and three of Marion’s finest firefighters for packing it up to the third floor school room. The desk was in rough condition and had been unloved for 30 years, so before donating to WCHS John repaired and refinished it along with help from his grandson Quin. He also has the chair that goes with it that we will receive later. The desk is circa 1928 to 1953. John acquired the desk as payment for copier repair he did for Mimi Gentile. It is a beautiful addition to our Bob Jackson Memorial School Room home of our one room school exhibit along with Creal Springs College, Crab Orchard Academy, Brown’s Business College and many other school related items. More about Colp High in another post.

A ribbon cutting ceremony was held at the Williamson County Historical Society on Wednesday, June 24th, 2026 at 2 P.M. as part of the society recently joining the Marion Chamber of Commerce. The event was well attended by between 25 to 30 people. Those attending were WCHS board members, Marion city officials including Mike Absher, mayor of Marion, and various WCHS supporters and chamber members. Those attending were treated to touring the museum to see the latest additions to the museum, mostly related to the 250 event and the service of veterans who have served in our county throughout a series of conflicts and wars in our nation’s history.

Our society will be holding our Marion Chamber of Commerce Ribbon Cutting at the museum at 2 PM on Wednesday, June 24^th next week. You are invited to come and support the museum with us on this occasion. The society joined the Chamber of Commerce this year in an effort to be better connected with all the other businesses in Marion and the community.

The historical society participated in the recent Third Thursday event held by the Marion Connects organization which hosts events held in our old downtown public square area. This will be the third year that the historical society has taken part in the event in which families come into the museum to get their photos taken inside the old county jail portion of our museum. This year a variety of moustaches were offered for the hombres before getting their photos taken. Shown in the photo is Sharon Vansaghi, curator and coordinator for the museum.

Just as a reminder, we still have a selection of used books and yearbooks for sale.

Used books for sale

Used Yearbooks for sale

The Williamson County Historical Society held a membership meeting on Sunday, April 19^th, 2026 at the museum/library in Marion. President Sam Lattuca informed the membership of the current state of the museum and presented photos of recent items accessioned into the museum including an 80 lb. ball and chain once worn by prisoners while on chain gang duty outside the prison. In addition, a selection of photos was presented which had recently been recorded into the museum/library’s database. Members were also informed of past events the museum has participated in as well as upcoming events.

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