Category: WCHS

We have just recently set about indexing a set of Mortgage Record books that are here at the museum. There are 74 of these very large county mortgage record books and each book contains approximately 1,000 to 1,200 references. These records document a number of transactions, the purchase of property, promissory notes using property as collateral, the transfer of ownership of property and even some unusual agreements like an early form of marriage agreements and partnerships. These records might possibly give a person some insight into their early family by finding out when property was purchased or transferred and perhaps what kind of property they owned and a lot more.  It takes about 20 hours to index each book and the indexes will be released after the completion of every four books. The first set of four book indexes can be viewed in the Master Mortgage Books index and will be stored under the Records tab, then Library Resource Indexes.

        The Genealogy Department was recently blessed with a large donation of books and information covering Franklin, Saline and Williamson Counties.  After adding to our shelves and inventory, we will be selling some of the duplicated books.   These books do have some marks and hi-lighting in them but are in good condition.  We have priced them accordingly.  They can be picked up at the museum or we could mail them to you for $5.00 shipping, plus cost of book. They are on a first come first serve basis. The other counties will be listed in the future.

Franklin County Books for Sale (more…)

729 digital obituaries covering deaths that occurred in our county during 2021 along with 216 paper obits and funeral cards donated to us over the last year that were put in our Card Catalog obit files have been added to our Master Obituary Index on our website. Most of the funeral cards were donated to us by one individual and they are mostly all Italian individuals buried in San Carlo Cemetery in Herrin over the period of 1930 through the 1960’s.

View the new funeral card and obit additions here.

In February 2022, Marion resident Leonard Russell donated a number of items to our museum. Among them were a letter written by his great grandmother, Mrs. W.P. Throgmorton, during the civil war to her brother, land grants, deeds, books and four pieces of stained glass.

The stained-glass pieces for the most part are 36″ x 24″ and came in pairs from the First Baptist Church in Marion when the church went through a large expansion and remodel project decades ago. Leonard had them removed from the window casings and modified to be able to hang in his home. Upon a recent move he donated them to the WCHS and they now occupy windows on three floors of our museum. The window pairs were dedicated to Dr. W.P. Throgmorton and his wife for dedicated service to the church back around 1900. 

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.

While we are currently in a open on Saturday only mode during the winter at the museum we currently have a few projects rolling along. We spent the month of December cleaning and reorganizing our attic storage area. When our roof was replaced in November a lot of debris fell through creating a mess so that room is all cleaned, newly reorganized and taken care of. After completing that we have spent the month of January disassembling, cleaning, repairing, repainting and reworking the displays on the third floor of the museum. New additional lighting has been added since it was always just a bit too dark on that floor. It will take us at least another solid month or more to finish reworking the entire third floor but the work will be time and resources well spent when finished. 

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 Williamson County Historical Society Museum and Library has switched over to its winter hours of operation. From Thanksgiving till March 1 the museum goes down to being open on Saturdays only from 9:30 till 3:00 P.M. The building runs on a gas fired boiler for radiator heat and costs about $400 a month just to keep it at 55 degrees so this saves on heat costs. In addition, this time of the year is when volunteers get an opportunity to rework displays and do maintenance work on the building which we normally wouldn’t have time for the rest of the year.

Everyone is encouraged to visit the museum on Saturdays through the holiday season and learn about local history and how early families had to live their lives. Perhaps, this may also be the time to start doing some family genealogy which we are very geared for in our library. Even if you haven’t started researching your family yet, we can help you with that as well.

For the experienced family researchers, don’t forget that we have an extensive book indexing system on our website with about three quarters of a million references relating back to our library research material or early court records. If you find something of interest in our indexes, just email us the book source and page number and we can scan the page and email it back to you.

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 

On October 8, 2019 Carol M. Highsmith graced the Williamson County Historical Society Museum. As a renowned photographer she has been donating her images to the Library of Congress since 1992.

Her series of images called, Carol M. Highsmith’s America, contains images across America documenting our history while it is still around. (more…)