Ten students from the Harrisburg Church of God’s Vacation Bible School visited the Williamson County Museum on June 24th 2014. The children ranged in age from several years old to 10 or 12. The groups chaperone emailed us back and stated, “Thank you so much for having us and for the tour. When asking the kids what their favorite parts were, the answers ranged from the prison and Native American artifacts (mostly the boys) to the one room school house, but everyone agreed they would not want to have to drink after everyone else with the dipper! “ The dipper she was referring to was the common bucket of water and dipper that was often used in the days before water coolers in school rooms and public buildings that everyone used to share in common. Yeh, I think we can all agree on that one.
All WCHS members should have received their Summer Quarterly #2 “Footprints” by now. The contents of the latest quarterly have been indexed in the Records menu tab of this website under Quarterly “Footprints” Index .
The highlights of this quarterly are biographies on Brice Holland, Confederate Soldier and Union Sailor, and Manheim Cantor, Marion merchant. Also included are extracted articles from 1914 and grave listings of the Samuel Cannedy Cemetery, and more.
If you haven’t received your quarterly, be sure to contact us and always make sure we have a current mailing address.
The chain of title claiming ownership to the land now occupied by the County of Williamson in the State of Illinois is followed from the early French trappers and explorers of the 1600’s to the Act of creation by the Illinois legislature in 1839 has been added to the History page under the Williamson County heading.
The data was extracted from Barbara Barr Hubbs book “Pioneer Folks and Places” written in 1939 with a great deal of help from our own Nannie Gray Parks, local historian and librarian.
The article can be found on the history page or you can jump from the following link:
Williamson County, Illinois Chain of Title and Act of Creation
An excerpted history of early Williamson County written by Nannie Gray Parks in 1939 has been added to the History Page under the Williamson County heading.
The brief history is an account of the Williamson County of 1839 which originally appeared in 1939 in the Souvenir Program of the Williamson County Centennial published by The Herrin Daily Journal and republished in the 1989 Williamson County Sesquicentennial History book.
To jump the article click on this link:
Thanks to a friend of Helen Sutt Lind, a new map has been added to the Williamson County Museum library. The 1869 map illustrates the counties of Jefferson, Franklin and Williamson as they existed in 1869 and reflect changes to the townships on the west side of the county when compared with the 1876 county map.
The map has been added to the Williamson County section of the History page or you can jump to the post with this link: