Our society is in possession of almost all of the Illinois Coal Report books that were published between 1894 into the 1970’s. Each book details the names of all fatal and non-fatal mine accident victims. All of the books detail in which coal mine the accident occurred and how the accident occurred, while some also give more detailed accounts and some biographical information. The names of all 738 victims of fatal accidents have been indexed and added to our Misc. County Record Index, while the names only can be found at a separate link below.
In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson, directed the organization of the Council of National Defense as a way of more or less inventorying the nation’s assets in preparation for our entry into World War I. An extension of the program was the Woman’s Committee which was administered on the state level.
The Woman’s Committee had several areas of emphasis: Americanization, Child Welfare, Educational Propaganda, Food Administration, Food Production, Foreign and Allied Relief, Health and Recreation, Registration, Women in Industry and Maintenance of Existing Social Agencies. Their work included registration of women in the state, assisting with Liberty Loan Bonds and with the November, 1917 food pledge. The Woman’s Committee struggled with establishing its authority over this work because of lack of clear direction from the federal government.
Regardless of its success, women from our county and the surrounding area were registered out of Marion and the Williamson County Historical Society is in possession of over 1,800 of these 5 X 8 registration cards that were filled out over the time period of November 1917 through May 1918. Continue reading
A Christmas Lunch was held at the Asian Star restaurant in Marion on Wednesday, December 12th, 2018. The lunch was held as a thank you to repay 2018 active volunteers and board members of the Williamson County Historical Society for their dedication and service. The historical society maintains a county museum in Marion at 105 S Van Buren Street which also houses an extensive genealogical and history research library. Those in attendance were Ursula Richey, Colleen Norman, Dolores Thetford, Gloria & Mike Spinks, Andrew & Lisa McRoy, Helen Lind, Sharon Vansaghi, Betty Millard and Sam & Debbie Lattuca.
Special recognition was given to Colleen Norman, Ursula Richey, Betty Millard & Sharon Vansaghi for their exceptional dedicated service throughout the year to the society and work at the Williamson County Museum. The museum is currently operating under its winter hours of operation of Saturday only, from 9:30 to 3 PM until March 1st.
355 obituaries have been added to our Master Obituaries Index that range predominately from the 1940’s to the 1990’s.
