What’s New

The Southern Illinois Heritage Expo and Craft Fair was held on Saturday, Feb. 13^th at the Herrin Civic Center. This was the second year for Heritage Expo produced by Southern Illinois Treasure Tours composed of Amy Erickson and Jon Musgrave.

The highlight of the expo was a 1920’s Valentine’s Mystery Murder Theater held at 6 PM to a sold out crowd. Our Williamson County Historical Society was, of course, among the vendors present at the event throughout the afternoon prior to the dinner theater.

Representing the society was President Sam Lattuca and museum curator/coordinator Sharon Vansaghi manning the society booth offering information about the society and selling plat maps and books.

The last of our indexed Williamson County court records that we hold at the museum have now been completely indexed and are completely available on this website now. They can be accessed by clicking on the Records tab.

In addition to the chancery, common law, criminal, divorce and partition files that buykeppraonlinenow numbered at 33, 981 entries, we now have added 61,453 more files for a total of 95,434 entries. Additional common law, divorce, criminal and partition files were added and there are also a foreclosure, indictment, coroner’s list and mental health records.

You can jump to the indexes by clicking HERE.

When Sheriff Russell Oxford last occupied the old county jail in 1971, his wife Jackie used to operate a washer and dryer in the basement of the old jail. At some point after the building was evacuated by the Sheriff’s Department and occupied by the Historical Society, all of the drain connections, supply lines and hot water heater went away.

This has made maintenance difficult at best, only having one operational sink in the entire building on the second floor in the only existing bathroom.

Plans were made at the last board meeting in early January to correct some issues with the building. It was approved to install hot water and plumbing to make the downstairs sink functional again as well as begin work on converting our old book store to a first floor restroom and utility closet with sink.

The necessary pipes have been installed and an on-demand hot water heater was installed in the basement which provides hot water to the upstairs bathroom, the downstairs sink and provisions were made to stub off plumbing in anticipation of connecting to the future bathroom project.

The old book store was moved into the foyer last month which clears the way for the bathroom project which will likely begin when the weather begins to warm up in spring. Elderly individuals and those with handicaps currently are unable to ford the steps to the second floor to use the restroom, so this project is long overdue.

Jonathan Sandys, speaker, author and great grandson of Sir Winston Churchill, dropped by the Williamson County Museum Wednesday afternoon, January 27th 2016, for a visit at the invitation of society member Bob Jackson and his family. Sandys was scheduled to speak at JA Logan College at 6 PM to promote his recently released book “God and Churchill” but managed to spend 1 and a half hours at the museum beforehand looking at Ordill ordnance plant building drawings from WWII, the military room and the old county jail cells.

Local Cub Scout Bear Den 21 sponsored by the Marion Zion Church visited the Williamson County Historical Society Museum Tuesday evening, January 26th, 2016 for a tour and a glimpse into the past. The trip was arranged by Den Leader Marc Henshaw.

Those scouts and parents attending were Marc and Kyler Henshaw, Kevin and Evan Dailey, Sami and Daniel Brame, Linda Cantrell, Bill and Corbin Jeffords, Jim Roberts and Kainen Hazel.

Anyone wanting to schedule tours of the museum during the day or after hours can call 997-1155 or leave a message at the museum at 997-5863.

Jonathon Sandys, great grandson of Sir Winston Churchhill and author of “God and Churchhill” will be speaking and signing books at J.A. Logan College on Wednesday, January 27^th, 2016 at 6 PM in the Batteau Room, F-103.

This event was scheduled at the request of Williamson County educators, Bob, Phyllis and Dawn Jackson and should prove to be a memorable event for an evening of Churchhill history.

RSVP at Eventbrite.com or call 618-985-6418

Questions? Email scott@egradiomarketing.com

A display of historic photos and maps was installed in the lobby of the Marion Civic Center for the month of January by our society today. The display will be on exhibit for the full month and represents a cross section of Marion and county history.

We have been taking advantage of the museum being closed and warm weather to make some improvements at the museum. In addition to recently clearing out our old book store and moving it to the foyer with improved lighting, several other changes have been made.

A utility sink downstairs which was unusable due to having no drain now has been tied into the drain pipes making it functional. All of the remaining shelving that was left in the old book store has now been moved. Two sections were cut from 8 foot high units down to 4 foot high units creating 20 feet of four foot shelving in the attic storeroom. The 12 foot wide 8 foot high unit was dismantled and reassembled in the second floor storage room. This revealed the windows in the old book store for the first time in over 20 years or more.

White pegboard was added to two closet displays on the second floor and two dumbwaiter displays on the first and second floors making them more attractive and easier to rearrange without having to add nails or screws. The tops and bottoms in the dumbwaiter displays were also replaced with more substantial material.

Many of the displays which were accessible have now had hinges with locks and hasps put on them to secure them.

We are also in the process of moving displays around to create new and interesting things for visitors to see.

A recently adopted award for the Williamson County Historical Society got its first inductees last week. The award called the WCHS Honor Roll is awarded in appreciation of dedicated service to the society. It serves as a reminder of the amount of hard work and dedication that some of our volunteers put into the society.

Husband and wife team, Mary Jean and Clarence DeMattei have both been dedicated workers at the museum for the last 13 years and are good examples of the Honor Roll’s reason for existence. Mary Jean served as museum curator and Clarence has served as a board member since 2003. Mary Jean often spent her time cleaning and taking care of displays while Clarence took care of the physical maintenance on the building.

The society can’t thank them enough for their selfless service over the years, but we can honor their service and selflessness.