The Williamson County Historical Society has recently released a publication that should be of interest to Marion residents with a taste for learning local history. The booklet entitled, “Historic Downtown Marion Walking Tour” is now available for sale. The publication includes a walking tour map that starts out at the corner of N. Market and W. Jackson Streets at the corner of the old First Christian Church building which is now the Market Street Music Conservatory.
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Members of the Gallatin County Historical Society visited the Williamson County Historical Society museum/library on July 6th, 2024. This is the second trip the Gallatin group has made to our museum, the last visit was a couple of years ago. They were treated to a tour of the museum by society president, Sam Lattuca where they were able to get ideas on what to do with their evolving museum. The Gallatin group also granted our society with a year’s membership in their organization.
A cemetery preservation workshop was hosted by the Williamson County Historical Society on June 29th from 9:30 till 4 P.M. at the museum/library at 105 S. Van Buren St. in Marion. The workshop was conducted by Dawn Cobb, an archeologist with the Illinois Department of Resources and John and Gena Heider who operate Restoration in Progress, a gravestone repair business.
The workshop started out at the historical society museum with a 2.5-hour program on understanding cemeteries and the laws that protect them as well as cemetery preservation. That was followed up by spending the afternoon at Barham Cemetery next to Rose Hill Cemetery with hands on training demonstrating cleaning, repairing and resetting techniques to fix grave markers. Also discussed were the Do’s and Don’ts of cemetery preservation to help the attendees understand why some methods will work to preserve the gravestones and why other methods will damage them.
The workshop was limited to twelve participants and was sold out almost immediately after it was announced in March.
The WCHS has been in possession of original court records for years that date back to the origin of the county in 1839 and would like to make sure that these documents are preserved in case tragedy should strike. Grants occasionally arise making money available to get these documents scanned, so we need someone with grant writing skills to try and secure some funding to help us on that issue. If you can help or know of someone, please contact us at wchsmail@yahoo.com or call at 618-997-5863.
Debbie Lattuca, president of the Marion Garden Club presented WCHS president Sam Lattuca with a check on May 31, 2024. The garden club makes yearly donations including planting flowers in our planter at the museum as well as a cash donation. Shown in the photo are L-R, Debbie Lattuca, Lynn Love, Sam Lattuca and Sheila Dingrando.