What’s New

Our first membership meeting since the beginning of the Covid pandemic will be held on Sunday, May 7th, 2:00 PM at the museum.

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 our member Charla Murphy who will be discussing facts about the 128^th Illinois Infantry.

As a reminder, our WCHS membership dues run from January thru December and are still $20 per year. You can check the status of your dues by looking at the latest address mailing label. If you’re dues are paid it will say 2023 or higher, if it says 2022 or earlier, your dues are overdue. Contact us if you have any further questions about your dues or the meeting at wchsmail@yahoo.com.

Due to recent hacking attempts on this site, the decision was made to purge registered users. The site had over 23,500 registered users and well over 90% of them were hackers attempting to gain access to the site. Since purging them by hand would be unreasonable, all users have been purged. Anyone wishing to post a query can still do so by re-registering. Thanks

As of March 1st, the Williamson County Historical Society’s Museum/Library is now open on it’s extended hours of operation. Until Thanksgiving, we will now be open Wednesday thru Saturday from 9:30 AM till 3:00 PM.

Indexing related to our collection of digital obituaries for the year 2022 taken from local funeral homes have been added to our Master Obituary Index. 

Indexing to the recently published local history book, Cedar Line Legacy, has been added to our Master Local History Index.

WCHS President, Sam Lattuca, gave history programs to students of the Adams School on Friday 10th, 2023. Lattuca spoke to the 7th grade civic’s class about prohibition and how it was handled in Williamson County and additionally also spoke to the 8th grade history class about Williamson County history.

Lattuca recounted who has occupied the counties land since prehistoric times including the tumultuous times of the civil war, the late 1800’s and 1920’s through the depression and WWII years up to the county’s development in more modern times. These included the formation of the Marion Prison, I-57, the Crab Orchard lake project and the Illinois Ordnance plant during WWII. 

The talks were scheduled by Adams school teacher Dana Stearns and Lattuca had just recently spoken to a class of high school students about Williamson County history

Williamson County Historical Society President, Sam Lattuca, gave a 30 minute presentation about the society to the Rotary Club (Jackson/Williamson Counties Sunset Club) held at Bandanas’s Restaurant in Carbondale on Tuesday, February 7^th, 2023 at 6 PM.

Lattuca recounted the roots of the historical society that evolved out of the 1939 Williamson County Centennial event and the societies reconstitution in 1954. Lattuca described how the society came into possession of the old county jail and how it has evolved into the organization that we know today. He also informed them of the museum’s contents and what is contained in the genealogy and history research library.

All 74 mortgage record books, A to Z and 1 to 48, have been indexed and added to our Master Mortgage Record Book Index. These record books span the time period from the 1850’s through the early years of the 1920’s and include indviduals, businesses, organizations, churches and schools. Whereas most of the records are either real estate or chattel mortgages, there are many articles of incorporation, lease agreements, coal leases, retail contracts and even a few marital agreements, powers of attorney and last will and testaments.

WCHS president, Sam Lattuca, presented a one hour program to high school students at Adams School on January 27^th, 2023. Lattuca detailed the history of Williamson County beginning with prehistoric native occupation through present day highlighting the events over the decades that formed the county we recognize today. Another presentation is being planned for 8^th grade students at the same school.

Mortgage record books 27 through 34 of 48 have been indexed and added to our Master Mortgage Record Book index. When completed there will be 74 mortgage books in the index ranging from about 1850 through the 1920’s.

Williamson County Mortgage Record books 21 through 26 have now been indexed and added to our Master Mortgage Record Index. The dates range over around 1912 through the early 1920’s. There are a total of 74 Mortgage books to index and so far we have indexed 52 of them.