Category: WCHS

WHCS president, Sam Lattuca, gave a 1.5 hour program on the early history and formation of Williamson County and Marion Thursday evening, May 18, 2017 at the Marion Carnegie Library. Lattuca’s program covered early native American cultures, French and British occupation as well as the process that the county buyinglevitrahere went through in getting formed. A few of the topics discussed were crime in Williamson County, the growth of coal mining and its role and how alcohol and the temperance movement shaped the county in its early years.

Also discussed were the types of birds and animals that used to be found here in pioneer times that we no longer see today.

Monday through Thursday, fifth grade students from the Washington School toured the county museum becoming aware of the ways of early pioneers and county citizens. On Friday a class of third graders from Dawn Jackson’s Washington School class visited.

The Williamson County Historical Society held its spring membership meeting on May 7th at the museum. Society projects both current and future were discussed. A show and tell was held during the meeting to allow members to talk about artifacts or items of historical relevance that they own and are knowledgeable of.

The guest speaker was Robert Swenson, a heritage preservation consultant and associate professor emeritus of SIU. Swenson gave an engaging program on Lewis and Clark in southernmost Illinois that was well received by the membership.

A meeting of the Southern Illinois Association of Museums was held on Saturday, May 6th, 2017 at the WCHS museum in Marion. SIAM board members first held a board meeting and then a membership meeting. The program consisted of a presentation of museum preservation techniques by Susannah Munson, Curator of Anthropology at SIU Museum followed by a program by WCHS President Sam Lattuca who explained the evolution of the Public Land Survey System and how to read property descriptions. Eighteen members were in attendance.

 

The index for the book Events in Egypt 1914 has been added to the Library Resource Index. The Events in Egypt book are newspaper extracts from Marion, Herrin & Carterville for the year 1914 and add over 4,000 entries to the Library Resource Index bringing its listings to 104,615 entries. Helen Lind of our society spent hundreds of hours accumulating this information and should be commended for her hard work and determination.

Three new volumes have been indexed and added to the master library resource index located from the Records tab of any page. The volumes added were the indexes to the 1915 Events in Egypt book full of newspaper extracts from Marion, Herrin & Carterville. The years 1916-1919 are currently being typed up for entry.

The other two volumes added were indexes to Oldham Paisley’s Scrapbook Vol. 1, 1A & 1B which are Marion Daily Republican newspaper coverage of the Herrin Massacre and associated riots. The Paisley Scrapbooks were type up by Rhonda Hagston which were not easy to do because of the type size and condition. Thanks to Rhonda for her volunteer work.

The new additions add 6,463 references bringing the index up to 100,630 references. When the volume gets too large it will be broken down into categories.

Library Resource Index

The index to Harry and Dorothy Boyd’s four volume set entitled “Tribute to Williamson County Heroes” published in 2014 has been added to the Library Resource Index. The books detail the lives of over 9,000 men and women who served in the U.S. military ranging from the Revolutionary War to 2014 that are buried in the county . Obits, grave markers, and photos where available were included in the book set. A full set of the books were donated to the Williamson County Historical Society by the Boyd’s and can be researched there or the set may be purchased from the Boyd’s. This is an amazing reference set and the Boyd’s should be commended for the amount of research and legwork that went into them.

This brings the resource index to over 94,000 entries so allow time for it to load.

The index can be located under the Records Tab as Library Resource Index.

Milo Erwin’s History of Williamson County published in 1876 and republished by the Herrin Press around 1903 has been re-indexed and added to our Library Resource Index. The volume adds 868 new references to the master.