Williamson County Illinois Historical Society

The Williamson County Historical Society will be holding a membership meeting on Sunday, October 27th, 2024 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. Our guest speaker will be Roger Peach who will be speaking about his latest book, entitled “Jockey Queen” about Lillian Jenkinson Holder, a prominent female jockey legend in horse racing here in Southern Illinois.

During the meeting, elections will be held for the 2025 WCHS board of directors. Any regular member who is local enough to attend occasional board meetings is qualified to run for a position. If interested in serving on the board, please contact us at the society prior to the meeting.

Longtime WCHS member and author Mary Jo Moore and her husband visited the Williamson County Historical Society. Mary Jo and her husband currently live in Paducah, Kentucky. Mary Jo authored the series of books we use in our library daily entitled “Bits of News.” The series is a collection of 9 volumes covering the years 1919 through 1928 and is based on Marion Daily Republican newspaper transcripts. Another of Mary Jo’s books is a booklet entitled the “The Potter Family Tragedy” which details the Potter family murder suicide that occurred here in Marion in 1926. Mary Joe has also published , “ The Memoirs of William Joseph Caplinger.” Mary Jo was generous enough to allow our society to republish any of her works in the future insuring that the volumes will live on to serve generations in the future.

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The Williamson County Historical Society held its quarterly membership meeting on Sunday, July 28, 2024 at their museum/library at 105 S. Van Buren Street in Marion

During the meeting, Sam Lattuca, president of the historical society went over projects undertaken at the museum & library since the last meeting, discussed new items taken in, upcoming projects and the state of the museum in general.

The guest speaker was local historian, Darrel Dexter, who spoke about the research he did in his latest book release, “Pulling off the Sheets—The Second Ku Klux Klan in Deep Southern Illinois”. The program covered the origins of the Ku Klux Klan after the Civil Ware and spoke about how it compared to the second wave of the Klan from the 1920’s and how it impacted Southern Illinois.  Dexter is an engaging speaker and has done extensive research on the topic.

For those of you who missed the program, you can see Darrel’s program that was recorded by a D.A.R. chapter by clicking this link.