Preserving Williamson County History – A 501(C)3 Organization
Posts related to the WCHS
The index to the book “The Herrin Conspiracy” has been created and added to our Master Local History Index viewable from our Records tab. The book is a brief recount of events surrounding the infamous Herrin Massacre event of 1922 and is only 36 pages long. The index to the book
can be viewed by itself in the link below:
The index to the book “Williamson County Schools” written by Lee Booth with his daughter Betty Green Rademacher in 1989 has been added to our Master Local History index under our Records tab. The index to the book can be viewed by itself in the link below.
Williamson County Schools: From a Personal and Professional Perspective
We recently added indexing to select township tax lists for the years 1891 and 1894 in addition to two books in our library related to deeds, mortgages and chattels. The latter book covers years from the 1840’s to around 1902. The indexes have been added to our Master Misc. County Records Index but may be viewed separately in the links below.
1891 Grassy Township, T10 R1 Tax List
1891 Southern Township, T10 R2 Tax List
1894 Blairsville Township, T8 R1 Tax List
1894 Herrin Township, T8 R2 Tax List
1894 Southern Township, T10 R2 Tax List
The 1905 Historical Souvenir by J.F. Wilcox has always been one of my favorites for county history. It was put together in 1904 and published in 1905. Our historical society first reprinted it in 1979. After being out of print for a few years now it is back in a softbound version and heavily indexed for people, places, businesses, churches, schools, events, crime and more. The volume contains early history of the county and its people up to its publication and contains many biographical features of local businessmen and prominent citizens. A real must have book for local historians. (more…)
For decades, one of our own historical society members, Helen Sutt Lind, known to us as “cemetery granny” has painstakingly created literally dozens of books that are used on a daily basis. Her books have become the foundation of research by all of us here and countless researchers and authors. Helen spent years transcribing county records at the court house and local newspapers on microfilm in addition to tromping through current and forgotten cemeteries of the county auditing gravestones. Helen was often but not always accompanied by one of our other members, Charla Murphy, who worked jointly with Helen on a number of projects.
Helen has graciously passed her trove of book master copies to the historical society so that her years of research can continue to be republished into the future. For that, we can’t thank Helen enough. A list of Helen’s books now in the possession of and sold by the historical society that were recently added are as follows and don’t include books that Helen had previously allowed us the permissions to. All are available for purchase through the museum book store. (more…)
The Williamson County Historical Society recently received permissions to reproduce the book “The History of the Village of Crainville” which was no longer in print and was only originally available in very limited quantities. The book has been reproduced and thanks to one of the original contributors a number of photographs have been added as well as an exhaustive index. The book is available through the museum book store and sells for $15.
An index was also created for the book “1965 Johnston City Homecoming Souvenir Program.” This book contains a history of Johnston City from its beginning up through 1965. The index contains over 1,500 references to places and peoples names. Both the Crainville and Johnston City book indexes have been added to our Master Local History Index.
We have recently added indexing from two sources. The first source is the History of the Village of Crainville which contains a concise early history of the Village and some lineage of the Crain family responsible for its beginnings. This indexing was added to our Master Local History Index.
The second source added is a partial accounting of Williamson County Birth Record Book 15 covering births that occurred from June 1923 through May 1924. This indexing was added to our Misc. County Records Index.
Both indexes can be found under the Records tab from our main menu.
WSIL TV reporter Brooke Schlyer featured our historical society on Wednesday morning, July 7th, 2021. WCHS President, Sam Lattuca and WCHS coordinator/curator Sharon Vansaghi were on hand at the museum at 4:30 A.M. in order to accommodate the news report related to our recent reopening after having been closed for over a year due to the pandemic. The main features were work that had been done on new and reworked displays accomplished during the shutdown. Brooke ran live broadcasts with Sam and Sharon at 5, 5:30, 6 and 6:30 and put together some recorded interviews for programming that aired in evening broadcasts. The link below will take you to the Channel 3 live airings.
Visitors welcomed back to renovations, new exhibits (wsiltv.com)
After having been closed to the public since March 2020, the Williamson County Historical Society Museum and Library at 105 S. Van Buren St. in Marion will reopen to the public on Wednesday, June 23rd, 2021. Before the pandemic the museum/library was able to be open six days a week but due to a loss of volunteers over the pandemic, the museum will begin by being open four days a week from Wednesday through Saturday, 9:30 A.M. till 3:00 P.M. Masks will only be required for those who are not fully vaccinated and groups will be held temporarily to a maximum of six people. (more…)
A soft opening of the WCHS museum and library was held on June 16th and 17th with invitations sent out to city, county and state officials as well as school and library personnel to come and check out the resources of our facility. This event was held to make local organizations and politicians aware of the vast resources the museum has to offer before completely opening to the public.
Some of those who visited the museum during the soft opening were State Representative Dave Severin, County Sheriff Bennie Vick, County commissioners Tim Atkisson and Jim Marlo, Carterville author/historian Jennifer Spence, and the Marion Carnegie Library was represented by Kelley McMullen and Loretta Broomfield.
The museum is set to reopen to the public four days a week from Wednesday through Saturday starting on Wednesday June 23rd from 9:30 to 3:00 P.M.
