The Herrin City Library, Herrin, Illinois, is hosting author Roger Peach at its “book talk” event on Friday, September 20 at 2 p.m. Peach will be discussing 47-year jockey veteran Lillian Jenkinson Holder who for decades competed at Southern Illinois county fairs. Lillian is the subject of his 2024 biography Jockey Queen.
Lillian Jenkinson Holder (1909-1992) was a legend in the racing saddle and was capable of competing with any jockey, female or male, throughout the majority of her career. The fact that she fought so hard for the right to compete at recognized, pari-mutuel racetracks beginning when she was a teenager ultimately resulted in “racing powers” of the day, otherwise known as “men,” banning her from their sight.
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Longtime WCHS member and author Mary Jo Moore and her husband visited the Williamson County Historical Society. Mary Jo and her husband currently live in Paducah, Kentucky. Mary Jo authored the series of books we use in our library daily entitled “Bits of News.” The series is a collection of 9 volumes covering the years 1919 through 1928 and is based on Marion Daily Republican newspaper transcripts. Another of Mary Jo’s books is a booklet entitled the “The Potter Family Tragedy” which details the Potter family murder suicide that occurred here in Marion in 1926. Mary Joe has also published , “ The Memoirs of William Joseph Caplinger.” Mary Jo was generous enough to allow our society to republish any of her works in the future insuring that the volumes will live on to serve generations in the future.
Some months ago, Sam Lattuca, president of the Williamson County Historical Society reported a story to the Marion Star newspaper about how DeYoung Street in Marion got its name. As a short recap, in 1899 a man named Teunis DeYoung came to Marion with his wife, son and daughter in law and agreed to purchase over 150 acres of Marion near the Marion Cemetery with a Bond for Deed. However, an unknown change of plans a couple of years later changed that plan and the deal never completely went through. DeYoung was a Dutch immigrant, then living in South Holland, Illinois south of Chicago.
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The Williamson County Historical Society held its quarterly membership meeting on Sunday, July 28, 2024 at their museum/library at 105 S. Van Buren Street in Marion
During the meeting, Sam Lattuca, president of the historical society went over projects undertaken at the museum & library since the last meeting, discussed new items taken in, upcoming projects and the state of the museum in general.
The guest speaker was local historian, Darrel Dexter, who spoke about the research he did in his latest book release, “Pulling off the Sheets—The Second Ku Klux Klan in Deep Southern Illinois”. The program covered the origins of the Ku Klux Klan after the Civil Ware and spoke about how it compared to the second wave of the Klan from the 1920’s and how it impacted Southern Illinois. Dexter is an engaging speaker and has done extensive research on the topic.
For those of you who missed the program, you can see Darrel’s program that was recorded by a D.A.R. chapter by clicking this link.
The Williamson County Historical Society has recently released a publication that should be of interest to Marion residents with a taste for learning local history. The booklet entitled, “Historic Downtown Marion Walking Tour” is now available for sale. The publication includes a walking tour map that starts out at the corner of N. Market and W. Jackson Streets at the corner of the old First Christian Church building which is now the Market Street Music Conservatory.
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