Williamson County Illinois Historical Society

The Williamson County Historical Society held a fall membership meeting Sunday, October 22^nd, 2017 at the Williamson County Museum and Genealogy Library at 105 S. Van Buren Street in Marion. Society business and projects both completed, ongoing and upcoming were discussed. Elections for the 2018 board of directors was held. Elected to office were Sam Lattuca, President; Colleen Norman, Vice President; Helen Sutt Lind, 2^nd Vice President; Ursula Richey, Secretary; and Bob Jackson for Director. The position of Treasurer was unfilled.

The guest speaker was Jon Musgrave, local historian, who spoke about the scary bits of Southern Illinois found in history including the practice of witchcraft and superstition in the area’s early history.

Society member, Dolores Thetford, was inducted into the Society’s Honor Roll due to her dedicated service to the organization. Thetford joined the society in 1977 and has served as Treasurer for the last 17 years.

Planned renovations on areas of the museum were discussed and recent accessions to the museum were displayed. The museum and genealogy library are currently open six days a week, Monday through Saturday from 9:30 till 3 PM. After Thanksgiving it will reduce its hours over the winter due to heating costs down to Saturdays only until the beginning of March.

Our next membership meeting will be held on Sunday, October 22nd, 2:00 PM at the museum. Elections will be held to compose the board of directors for the year 2018. All board positions except for two director slots are to be voted on. Nominations can be made all the way up to election time, so if you have an interest in helping guide our society or know someone who might be interested, be sure to contact us or you may place the name in nomination at the meeting prior to the election. Only paid members are allowed to vote at the election. All positions are one year terms except for directors which serve for three years.

During the meeting, improvements, society activities and projects will be discussed. The program for the meeting will be given by local historian Jon Musgrave and the seasonal topic will be “The Scary Bits of Southern Illinois History: Witches, Haunts and the Road of the Werewolf.” As always, feel free to bring any “show and tell” items of historical or genealogical interest to the society and share them with us.

As a reminder, the museum will switch from operating six days a week to our winter hours of operation, Saturdays only, from after this Thanksgiving through the beginning of March next spring.

Ten new indexes have been added to our Library Resource Indexes:

• 1926 Bits of News Vol. 7, Marion Daily Republican
• 1927 Bits of News Vol. 8, Marion Daily Republican
• Naturalization Petitions and Records Volumes 1 through 8

All indexes are available form the Library Resource Indexes page