What’s New

The Williamson County Historical Society will be holding a membership meeting on Sunday, April 27, 2025 here at the museum/library at 2:00 P.M.

During the meeting we will be going over projects undertaken at the museum & library since the last meeting, accessions taken in, upcoming projects and the state of the museum. The program will be about Cemetery Restoration and will be given by Sharon Vansaghi.

As a reminder, our WCHS membership dues run from January thru December and are $25 per year. You can check the status of your dues by looking at the year date on the address label on this mailing. If you’re dues are current it will say 2025 or higher, if it says 2024 or earlier, your dues are due. We hope to see you at the meeting.

The Marion CLIO Club toured the museum on May 8th, 2025. Eleven members of the club received a tour from WCHS president, Sam Lattuca. The members were informed of the records that are available for genealogical research in the library and then toured through the many rooms of artifacts in the historical societies old jail building.

Fourteen students and mentors from Ambleside School in Marion visited the WCHS Museum on Friday, March 21, 2025. The students were given a complete tour of the museum and library by Curator/Coordinator Sharon Vansaghi and WCHS President Sam Lattuca. During the tour the group was presented with artifacts representing many ways of life gone by in Williamson County. The group was shown tools, housewares, medicines and clothing that would have been used from pioneer times through to the mid-20th century. In addition, the group was spoken to about early Native American life and artifacts and students, of course, always find the old jail cells interesting.

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The historical society’s museum and library are now back to our four day a week schedule. We are now available at the museum from Wednesday through Saturday from 9:30 AM till 3:00 P.M. for research of tours.

The Williamson County Historical Society held a membership meeting on Sunday, January 26, 2025 at the museum/library located at 105 S. Van Buren St. in Marion.

During the meeting, society president Sam Lattuca discussed projects undertaken at the museum & library since the last meeting, new items accessioned to the museum, upcoming projects and the state of the museum. He also illustrated the use of artificial intelligence to create movement when applied to historic photos.

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The Williamson County Historical Society will be holding its first membership meeting for the year on Sunday, January 26, 2025 at 2:00 P.M. at the museum, 105 S. Van Buren St. in Marion.

We will go over the state of the museum, ongoing projects and reviewing some of the latest accessions to the museum. In addition, the meetings program will be conducted by Sam Lattuca and Charla Murphy and will cover the origins of our current property survey systems used in the U.S. and how they work and evolved. Also covered will be reading property descriptions and working with deeds.

All members and non-members are welcome to attend.

Charles Robert “Bob” Jackson age 89, of Marion a teacher, coach, artist and historian, passed away at 8:47 am on Friday, December 20, 2024, at his home with his family on the same small farm where he grew up.

Bob was born in Williamson County on April 14th, 1935, the son of Guy and Birdie Cowsert Jackson. He married Phyllis Sue Kobler on August 20, 1960. They were married for 58 years until her death on May 30, 2019.

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Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois, Troop 8077 visited the Williamson County Historical Society museum/library for a tour on Sunday, November 2, 2024. The tour was conducted by our society curator/coordinator Sharon Vansaghi.

680 new references have been added to our Master Local History Index. The references were pulled from Sneed’s “Ghost Towns of Southern Illinois” and contain only references to Williamson County ghost towns and locations. Within the index are references to people, places, events, churches, schools, businesses, government, and indigenous natives.

The Williamson County Historical Society Museum and Library will be changing it hours of operation for the winter months after Thanksgiving to Saturdays only. Our normal hours of operation of Wed thru Saturday from 9:30 to 3 PM will shift to Saturdays only from 9:30 till 3 PM. until early next March. Our staff will however, still be available through phone messages and email for research or questions.

The museum/library will be open on November 30^th, the Saturday after Thanksgiving.