John Mitchell Cline was born in Allen County, Kentucky, December 25, 1848, to Jefferson and Sarilda Jane (Absher) Cline. He came to Marion at age 2 with his mother, father and sister Arabella in 1850 where they settled in Crab Orchard Township east of Marion, Illinois. With John’s natural aptitude for business, as soon as he came of age he began buying livestock and poultry, which he continued until 1877.
Mr. Cline was married to Miss Alice Vick, April 26, 1876. Mary was the daughter of Samuel S. Vick, a prominent businessman, who had entered the drug business in 1872 and opened a drug store in the 600 block of the Public Square (west side).
In 1877, John Cline, desiring to enter other fields, purchased a drug store located in the southeast corner of the square in the building just south of the current City Hall (old W.T. Grant store). It is an assumption on my part, but a solid one, that since John had no previous training in the drug business that he likely got tutelage from his father in law, Samuel S. Vick.
In the 1880 census, John was 31 and his wife Mary Alice was 20. They had just had their first child Harry X. in 1878, two years prior.
After 14 years in his original business location, in 1891, he then moved his store to the northeast corner of the square at 1203 Public Square. Here the store would remain as a Cline drugs or Cline-Vick drug store until 1964 when driven out by fire for about the third time.
John Cline’s family, as well as the Vick family, were active members of the Methodist Church South (later Aldersgate). In 1892 when the first M.E. church building was sold and the M.E. Church that many of us still remember at 305 S. Market Street was built. John M. Cline, Samuel S. Vick, A. L. Cline (John’s brother) and others were prominently connected with the building enterprise and John Cline was still a member of the church board in 1904.
By the 1900 census, John’s business had been paying off. They were now occupying a home at 208 S. Market Street. Almost directly across the street from the M.E. Church he loved. He was only two doors down from the Marion Elks Club. Additionally, they were just across the street from his wife’s parents at 205 S. Market.
In this census, John is 52, Mary is 40 years old. The census indicates that they have lost a child since the last census was taken and are now five for four on children. The child referred to was Hazel Cline who was born in 1888 and died in 1896. Their children living at home are Harry 22, Leon V. 20 and Samuel Philip aged 8. They have a 19 year old female servant named Julia Franklin.
One of their sons who slipped through the cracks of the “non-existent” 1890 census was John V. Cline who was born in 1882 and oddly enough, killed in an automobile accident in 1914. Surely, he must have been one of the county or cities first automobile casualties.
Their son Leon V. Cline, who had been apprenticing under his father, would leave the family this year and open his own drug store in Herrin, Illinois. Harry, their oldest son, would leave to finish school and become a doctor.
On April 20, 1910, when the next census was taken, their son Harry Cline had completed his medical training and had a general practice at 1204 Public Square. He had just married this year to Grace Goodall and the couple was sharing the home of his parents at 208 S. Market St.
John was still active with his drug business at 1203 Public Square at the age of 62. They owned their home on S. Market. Mary was 50 years old and the couple still had one young son Samuel Philip aged 8 living at home in addition to their married son Harry and his wife.
Samuel Philip Cline, like his brother, apprenticed under his father and also attended Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois. After his graduation, he married Mabel Carter, a doctor’s daughter from Jackson County. He established a drug business at 10th and Walnut in Murphysboro, Illinois. When this business was destroyed in the tornado and ensuing fires of 1925 that demolished the city, he ended up establishing a drug store in McLeansboro, Illinois, which is where he died in 1964.
Dr. Harry X. Cline, their eldest son enlisted in the Army at Burbank, California and was commissioned Captain in July 1917. He was Brigade Bugler under General Lee during the Spanish American War and served in the medical core in France during World War I achieving the rank of Major with the 88th Division. He later served as Mayor of the City of Burbank, California.
On October 27, 1922, John Cline passed away at age 73. He wasn’t buried in Rose Hill Cemetery until October 31st, a bit unusual for the time, presumably so his oldest son Harry could return from California.
John Cline was a member of the Odd Fellows, K. of P. and the Elks. This short biography cannot record the achievements of this pioneer businessman, but it does show his success as a citizen that Williamson County is proud of. Unknown to him, is the fact that his progeny and business will live on in the lives of countless Southern Illinois families.
After John’s death, his wife Mary Alice bought a home located three blocks down at 507 S. Market Street. In the 1930 census, this is where she was living at age 70. She claimed a value of $12,000 on the home. Living with her, was a sister-in-law named Minnie C. Bracy (John’s sister), a widow also, aged 68.
By the 1940 census, Mary had reached the age of 80 and had a live in housekeeper named Flo Murrie living with her, still at 507 S. Market St. She now values the home at $6,000.
Mary Alice died on April 6, 1943 at 83. The entire family, with the exception of Samuel P. Cline, is interred at Rose Hill Cemetery.
(Extracts from 1905 Souvenir History, WCHS; Williamson County in the War, WCHS; Federal Census Records; Marion City Directories; Illinois Death Records; Marion City Cemetery Records; Ancestry.com; compiled by Sam Lattuca on 02/27/2013)