Williamson County Illinois Historical Society

Preserving Williamson County History – A 501(C)3 Organization

Category: WCHS

Posts related to the WCHS

  • Museum Recieves National MAP Grant

    The Williamson County Historical Society Museum has been selected to participate in the Museum Assessment Program (MAP). Through guided self-study and on-site consultation with a museum professional, participation in MAP will empower the Williamson County Historical Society to better serve the citizens of Williamson County by facilitating its museum resources and attempting to match the highest professional standards of the museum field.

    The program is funded by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and throughout its 30 years has been administered by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM). As part of the IMLS National Leadership program, MAP advances best practices and fosters improvements in museum management. MAP is a self-motivated program; application to and participation in MAP is initiated by each local institution and those accepted invest considerable human and institutional resources into the assessment.

    The Williamson County Historical Society took possession of the old county jail in Marion in 1972 and opened its doors to the public in 1976. Since then, the museum has been dedicated to the preservation of the county’s rich past and has been filled with historic county artifacts and memorabilia. In addition, the museum has also developed into a leading genealogical research library that is open to the public. Society President, Sam Lattuca, stated that the museum is looking forward to taking a fresh look at the museum’s operation in light of taking advantage of new technologies that have developed and that could potentially make the museum’s assets more accessible.

    Part of the assessment program involves the cooperation of individuals from the community who are outside the management of the museum. Those who wish to be involved in the program should feel free to contact the museum.

    The county museum is currently under its winter hours of operation and is open on Saturday only from 10 AM till 3 PM due to heating costs of the old building. The museum will resume its Monday through Saturday schedule starting March 2, 2015. The museum is located at 105 S. Van Buren Street in Marion, Illinois and they can be reached at 618-997-5863, their website www.wcihs.org or can be found on Facebook.

  • Early Court Record Indexes Now Available

    Early Williamson County Court Records from the formation of the county up into the 1920’s are now indexed on this site on the Records Page. If a search of these indexes reveals an ancestor or person of interest, copies of the original court files are available. New Indexes are as follows:

    Chancery Court Records Index, 1842-1912, 5,663 Names

    Common Law Court Records Index, 1840-1900, 7,905 Names 

    Criminal Case Records Index, 1840-1912, 3,349 Names

    Divorce Record Index, Williamson County, 1844-1920, 4,331 names

    Partitions Index, Williamson County, 1845-1921, 12,729 names

  • Chancery Court Record Index Available

    The Williamson County Chancery Court records index covering the years from1842 to 1912 is now available on the Records Page of this site. The index contains the names of 5,663 people or businesses. With any luck over the next week or two, I will try to get the indexes posted for Common Law Court, Criminal Court, Divorce Court and Partition files.

    Chancery court, known as the “court of equity”, was similar in many ways to the small claims court of today and handled most all smaller disputes. Typical cases would involve creditor and vendor bills, mechanic liens, injunctions, summons, specific performance cases, and all sorts of land disputes including deed claims, land warrants, property rights and disputes. The files provide unique insight into the lives of our ancestors.

    These records took countless hours to transcribe from old documents and provide an invaluable resource for genealogists and historians that would normally never be made available it they hadn’t been preserved. The WCHS is in possession of each of the listed case files and they can be copied on request for a fee of $10 plus .50 for each page scan. If a search of the indexes locates a person of interest, a request for copies of the files in paper or digital format can then be made for a fee. Please, notate the corresponding file number, i.e. CR-012 and year. Contact Us

     

  • 2015 WCHS Membership Dues

    Have a happy and prosperous New Year!!

    A reminder to all WCHS members that as the New Year starts the 2015 dues are due. Please remember to renew your dues and don’t forget to update you mail addresses so that the 2015 quarterlies can reach you. Feel free to use the “Contact Us” page for changes.

    We have a number of projects in the works and your dues will help support our new efforts to improve the museum. For those who are not members, show your support of Williamson County history preservation by becoming a member.  Just click the “Join WCHS” link at the right.

  • Christmas Help Needed

    The Williamson County Museum is host to one of the best genealogical libraries in Southern Illinois and in addition, hosts an incredibly eclectic mix of Williamson County history within its walls. Whereas many museums are more topical in nature, i.e.  Civil War museum or Battle of Gettysburg museum, this museum attempts to contain and catalog as much information as possible about an entire county.

    To properly catalog all the information contained in the museum in the past, it has been done on paper and partially on computer files. We are now in the process of transferring this information to databases and expanding on it, which will give us the ability to instantly search for surnames or objects through tens of thousands of photos, objects and references, an incredibly more efficient way to search for information which will benefit all.

    To accomplish this will require two things. First, volunteer help to enter data or research historical objects. Second, we need to expand our software and computer abilities in the museum.  We really need about $1,000 to do it right.

    If you have any time to volunteer please get ahold of us using the Contact Us page on this site.

    If you are tired of getting presents on Christmas that you don’t need or want, ask a friend or family member to donate to the museum in your honor instead. Donations can be made securely using PayPal by clicking the Donate Button on the right side of the page. Even if you don’t have a PayPal account you can still securely use your credit card.

    Our history is our heritage and needs to be preserved and accessible.

    Please support the museum and help us turn a good library and museum into an even better one.

  • WCHS Held Annual Christmas Lunch

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    The annual Christmas lunch for the Williamson County Historical Society was held on December 3, 2014 at Bennie’s restaurant in Marion. The society typically gathers to share a meal prior to the season’s holidays and celebrate the year’s work.

    At the lunch, long time society President, Bob Jackson, was awarded a plaque to commemorate his twelve years of service as President of the historical society, having served in that position from 2003 to 2014. Jackson was awarded the plaque by Sam Lattuca, incoming 2015 board President.

    Also recognized at the lunch was museum coordinator, Sharon Vansaghi, who was hired by the board in March 2014. The new position was created so that the museum could stay open 6 days a week through the warm months of the year allowing increased public access to the museum. This position was made possible by a stipend paid by the Marion city council and has paid off. The museum this year saw approximately 1,400 visitors. Many of the visitors were genealogy researchers from not only out of the region, but out of the state, having come from Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, California, Canada and many other locations to research lost ancestors and historical events.

  • Southern Illinois Heritage Expo kicks off Dec. 6

    HERRIN – The Southern Illinois Heritage Expo will kick off its inaugural event Saturday, Dec. 6, at the Herrin Civic Center featuring Chris Vallillo, a nationally acclaimed singer/songwriter and folk musician, and Ruthie Shelton, author and heir of the infamous Shelton Brothers.

    Vallillo makes the people and places of “un-metropolitan” America come to life in song by weaving songs and narratives into a compelling portrait of the history and lifestyles in the Midwest. He will be performing such songs as “The Death of Carl Shelton” plus his own 2013 release, “Bloody Williamson”, a song telling the Herrin Massacre story from a UMWA miner’s viewpoint. (more…)

  • Heritage Expo, December 6, 2014

    Heritage Expo

  • What’s Going on at the Museum

    There are a number of projects in the works at the Williamson County Historical Society which we hope to have implemented over the winter months as follows:

    • Online membership applications and renewals will be made available on our website through a secure PayPal account which means you can use your PayPal account or a credit card to join or pay your dues.
    • Indexes for all of our Williamson County records related to divorce, chancery, criminal, common law, partitions and injunctions will be made available online and the ability to purchase the contents of these files using a credit card or PayPal account will be made available online.
    • Our bookstore list of items we sell will be improved dramatically with photos and complete descriptions of each book or article. Orders will be able to be placed and paid for online instead of having to rely on regular mail and sending a check.
    • Numerous federal, state, and private grants are being looked into to improve the museum and preserve and display its artifacts. This has become an ongoing project that is taking a lot of volunteer time, but hopefully will pay off eventually down the road.
    • A digital media project is now underway and will hopefully be completed over the winter. This project is related to the inventorying and cataloging of all photos and pictures contained within the museum. All photos are being scanned, cleaned up and catalogued into a database which will allow searches for specific people, places and things. An earlier failed attempt to get this done under an Illinois Humanities Council grant only resulted in the resolve to get it done anyway. As much data as can be known about each photo will be retained in the database.
    • The new Marion High School in Marion is going to have some very large murals in it which will be collages of historic photos related to the Marion High School past in various areas such as athletics and art. The museum has been helping the company involved find plenty of photos for them to use on the project.
    • There is an attempt being made to encourage volunteer museum workers to develop areas of expertise related to our counties history such as Civil War, the depression, prohibition, etc. If you have an area of expertise already or wish to do research on a particular area of interest, please contact us.
    • We are seeking volunteers who can help field answers to queries on this website.

    As always, we really need volunteer help for our organization to work and, of course, a number of us are stretched pretty thin. If you have a skill set related to research, grant writing, website or computer expertise, fundraising or video production, we could use your help. Use the Contact Us page to volunteer.

  • Ghost Hunters Spend Night at Museum

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    The Southern Illinois Ghost Hunters Society, S.I.G.H.S., spent the night at the Williamson County Museum located at 105 S. Van Buren Street in Marion, Sunday night. The group arrived at the museum at 7 P.M. Sunday night, November 9, and departed at 3:30 A.M on Monday morning. They were hosted at the museum by Williamson County Historical Society board member, Sam Lattuca, who sat with them through the night. This was the third time that the society has spent the evening in the historic museum setting up devices to try and catch paranormal activity.

    The group consisting of Justin Timmons, Donna Smith, Briana Smith, Hayley Triplett, Ashley Kunkel, Jon Reed, Bethann Cline and Erin Settle try to regularly visit historic sites such as historic buildings, cemeteries and residential homes. They have invested in EVP recorders to catch unearthly voices, infrared cameras to detect normally invisible objects and events and a host of other tools to tease the paranormal to reveal itself.

    Three cameras were set up this time, one in the Sheriff’s master bedroom on the second floor, the jury sequester room on the third floor and a second floor jail cell in the jail portion of the building. According to Justin Timmons, the group had prior paranormal activity in these locations which included spontaneous hair pulling and EVP activity. One of the group members reported that she had taken a photo from outside the building and the photo revealed a figure standing in one of the first floor windows which could no longer be possible since the windows are not accessible from the inside any longer. Pickings were a little slimmer on this trip as the group documented only one unidentified noise and a handprint that appeared on the bed upstairs.

    The old county jail museum was built in 1913 and has certainly seen its share of strife, including a hanging by suicide in one of the jail cells, a prisoner death related to a fall down stairs and a legal hanging which took place in Paradise Alley just outside the jail in 1927.

    The group plans on reviewing all of their data for more activity and will report back to the museum of any new findings.