Williamson County Illinois Historical Society

The Williamson County Historical Society Museum and Library located at 105 S. Van Buren St. in Marion will expand it hours of operation to four days a week starting on Wednesday, March 2, 2022. The museum typically limits its hours to Saturdays only during the winter months in order to save on heating costs and perform repairs and renovations. The museum/library’s new hours of operation will be Wednesday through Saturday from 9:30 to 3:00 P.M.

The historical society has hosted the museum in the old county jail since 1976. The jail building once served as the county jail from its construction in 1913 to its last prisoner discharge in early 1972. The jail once housed as many as 80 plus inmates, was a hot spot during the roaring twenties and served as the location for the last prisoner to be publicly hanged in the county in 1927. In addition to a jail, the building also served as the residence for the then current county sheriff.

The museum has four floors and 26 rooms of historical artifacts covering everything from jail cells to local Native American artifacts, early pioneer life, a general store and drug store, vintage clothing, housekeeping, coal mining, vintage tools and much more. Tours, either guided or self-guided, are free, but donations are appreciated.

The research library contains thousands of collected references related to local history and genealogy. Free Wi-Fi is provided and assistance from staff is available to aid those doing research. Even if you have never delved into your family genealogy our staff can help you get started.

Anyone interested in volunteering to help at the museum are welcome. Volunteers can help with typing, research, tours, maintenance, etc. It is our hope that with additional volunteers we can get the museum back to a six day a week schedule as we were in pre-pandemic times.

It turned out to be an expensive year for our museum this year. Earlier in the year a water leak was detected in our boiler system that required draining the hot water radiator system, repairing the problem and refilling the system at a cost of nearly $2,000. The work was done by Fowler Heating and Air back in August while the system would normally be down anyway and the system is hopefully now ready for another string of winter heating seasons.

After having a series of water leaks in the roofing over the last few years it was decided this year to have all of our roofing replaced. Three estimates were obtained in the summer and in late October and into November the shingled roof was torn off and replaced and then the three flat roofed areas of the building were replaced. The bid was won by Back to Normal Construction (B2N) and cost $32,400.

Needless to say the work has dipped seriously into our savings, so hopefully we are done with large expenses for a while. If anyone can help with donations, it would certainly be appreciated so that we can continue our work and maintaining a fine old building that dates to 1913.

The newly created index to the book “Personal Memoirs of James W. Turner” have been added to our Master Local History Index. The index contains over a thousand references to people, places, schools and events. Turner was instrumental in the development of our counties early school system, taught in several of its schools and was also instrumental in the founding of Crab Orchard Academy located in Crab Orchard Illinois. The index can be viewed separately below.

Personal Memoirs of James W. Turner