What’s New

New postings related to our counties first settlers and early mills have been added to the History Page. They were extracted from Goodspeed’s History of Gallatin, Saline, Hamilton, Franklin and Williamson Counties, Illinois published in 1887. (more…)

We have thousands of newly printed brochures ready for distribution reflecting our new hours of operation. The brochures were printed courtesy of the Williamson County Tourism Bureau and encapsulate descriptions of the museum and its exhibits.

In addition, the brochure contains information related to membership, our research library, hours of operation and the internet addresses of not only the county website but the Marion History Preservation site as well.

The brochures will be distributed to public locations so they can be accessed by those who may be unfamiliar with the historical society and the museum and library.

Thanks to the efforts of Helen Sutt Lind, the first installment of the 2014 quarterly publication “Footprints in Williamson County” are in the mail and members should receive theirs soon. If you haven’t received yours yet, you can get a preview of what’s inside by checking the Quarterlies Footprints Index in the Records Tab of the menu or just Click Here. (more…)

For those of you who may have had ancestors from southern Crab Orchard Township, a photo was just added with the class of students who were attending Motsinger School on January 16, 1893. This photo contained some Carters that were related to our own member Violet Grisham who has done a vast amount of research on the county. To see the photo look in the History Tab on the menu or Click Here. (more…)

The History Page on this site containing the early histories of all of the counties cities, ghost towns, villages, post offices and points of interest has been updated. We recently added 58 new entries and indexed the page. There are now over 100 histories listed. The last entries ranged from Hurst-Bush School to Zion Church. (more…)

Recent board action has enhanced the benefits of being a member of the Williamson County Historical Society. In addition to helping support the expense of operating the museum, your membership fees will now entitle you to a 10% discount on any materials that we offer for sale in our Book Store.

Additionally, we are working on giving society members access to unprecedented historical records. (more…)

Fifty new histories have been added to the History page on this site. I am slowly but surely filling in historical data on the cities, ghost towns, villages and places of interest of Williamson County to make it easier to fill in historical blanks when researching past family members and historical events. (more…)

An open house event is being planned for May 17th to celebrate and help promote our being open six days a week now as well as the counties 175th anniversary. If you are local and can help with the event, please call the museum or use the contact us form.

The year 2014 marks the 175th year of existence since Williamson County was carved off of the south end of Franklin County in the fall of 1839. The county seat of Marion was located on August 20th and October 7th was the day that the county court held it’s infamous first meeting at the Benson home which was a double log cabin located where the ArtStarts building (old Wilson Funeral Home) is now located across the street from our museum. (more…)