Coal miners rode the electric line to get to work and school children watched plays like “Peck’s Bad Boy” at an opera house on Union Street.
Henry “Happy” Norman, who traces his roots to the early settlement of Marion, reminisces about his ancestors who made the trek to the settlement that would be Marion from Tennessee in the early 1800s. He also shares his memories of how North Market Street, north of the Marion Square, was for many years an important Marion retail area.
Norman recalls that his ancestor, Henry Norman, was one of the early settlers in the Marion area, traveling from Tennessee and crossing the Ohio River to settle land near Illinois Route 166 and Route East in 1823.
The Normon pioneer had three sons, Jonathan, David and Solomon. David Norman was first a Williamson County Commissioner and then administered early justice as a county judge from 1855 to 1865. His brother Jonathan also was an early associate county judge.
David Norman was a man with a large family. The early judge first married Nancy Sanders (Saunders) and they had seven children. After her death, he married Susan Klope, who helped him to raise those children and seven more of their own.
Judge Norman died in 1865, leaving the care of a large farm and the family to his wife Susan. She lived to be 102 years of age. At her death on October 26, 1925, she was the oldest living resident of the County.
Happy Norman tracks his own family line from the third son of that early settler, Solomon Norman, who was Happy’s great-great-grandfather. Solomon’s agricultural interests and early purchase of land that would eventually produce much coal, helped to make possible Happy’s father’s later role as a hardware merchant on North Market Street after the turn of the century.
Solomon Norman purchased 80 acres from the government and the early parchment deed indicated that he bought it for about 25 cents an acre.
Norman’s grandfather, George Norman, and his father, Alvin Norman, later owned that “plantation” about three miles northeast of Marion. He remembers a log cabin was built there and also a log barn, which have remained for many years landmarks to the early history of the county.
The Norman Cemetery, established by another relative, Ananias Norman, is located just west of the Norman tract.
In 1913, Alvin Norman owned the coal rights to that some 80 acres, plus another 20 acres that had been annexed to it. He sold the rights to the Wallace Coal Company which mined the tract for many years.
Alvin Norman took the funds from this sale and purchased a third interest in the Heyde Hardware Company on North Market Street. The other partners were J. Milton Norman and T.A. Cox. Later Cox sold Alvin his third interest in the business.
The three-story hardware store, with a balcony and no basement, covered almost two lots. People from miles around would travel to Marion to see the window dressing at the hardware store. The windows were dressed each fall by J. Milton Norman and always drew much attention.
J. Milton Norman also did much to boost Marion during that era. He was one of the main members of the Marion Chamber of Commerce and headed for many years the Retail Division Merchants.
He was also much in demand to lead the Labor Day Parade, Fourth of July Parade and other parades. As Grand Marshal for the parades, he would ride a big white horse at the front of the parade. On the 15th and 30th of each month, the hardware store would stay open extra hours because these were pay days for the coal miners.
As a lad, Happy remembers going to the hardware store from the old Washington School (where the present county courthouse is located) and sharpening pencils so the coal miners could come in and line up to sign their checks. When the miners could not write their names, he would have the person standing either in front or behind the miner witness an “X.”
“My father would go to the bank on paydays and get about $15,000 in cash and have it at the hardware store for all of those miners to line up to cash their paychecks after they got off the train,” Happy recalled.
“Now most of these coal miners were customers of the store and very often would come in and buy things on credit.
“At that time there was no dishonesty and most of the time they would cash their checks and say, ‘Put $10 or S15 against my account’.”
He remembers that many of the coal miners would make considerable money because they were paid according to the tonnage they would load.
Milton Norman would also sit on the outside of the hardware store and sell 5-cent and 10-cent packages of carbide which the miners used in lamps to light their way into the coal mines.
The miners would usually only buy as much carbide as they’d need for one day’s work although they could have purchased it in 100-pound, 25-pound or 10-pound cans, he remembered.
“They would only buy a nickel or a dime’s worth of carbide. Milton Norman would sit there and let them throw their dimes or nickels at him and would give them a sack of carbide. Or he would put it down in the miner’s account.”
Happy remembered that prohibition era gang leader Charlie Birger and Ku Klux Klan leader S. Glenn Young would visit the hardware store to buy gun ammunition. “Those fellows were customers at the store. But when we ran out of the kind of ammunition that they were using, dad would not order anymore,” he recalled.
Alvin Norman entered the business after working as an armature winder for the Straight Railway in St. Louis at the close of the 19th century and early in the 20th century. He returned to the Marion area in 1904 and went to work as chief electrician at Peabody Coal Company’s Mine No. 3, just northwest of Marion.
Each day, Alvin would ride the Coal Belt Electric Railroad to get to the mine. Many times during the hard winter, the cars would not start after setting overnight on the Marion square and they would have to wait for Alvin to start them.
The cars would start from a site near the present Butler Hi-Rise and travel toward the square. The cars then would go west to what used to be known as the Lilly Curve and then run north. Later, the electric line was moved and came in just a bit south of the present rail crossing on North Market Street. The offices of the Coal Belt were located in a depot there. The electric line stopped on the west at the fairgrounds and people often rode it to get to the fair.
Happy Norman remembered that when he was a child of four, the First Baptist Church was being built. He said he attended Sunday School and church at that time in the Williamson County Courthouse in the center of the Marion Square.
Beginning in 1913, the Norman family also observed annual homecomings for 35 years. The first reunions were held at the Marion fairground and later at a grove owned by his father’s brother, Levi Norman. As many as 2,000 people came for the homecoming gatherings.
North Market Street was a center of Marion activity during his boyhood and early adulthood, with many places to shop, six barbershops, restaurants, and theaters. A basement barbershop and a restaurant were the first businesses on the east side of North Market Street right off the square.
The restaurant was known as the J. L. Robinson Restaurant and was later sold to Greek immigrants who had come to Marion and were early cheese makers as well as ice cream and candy manufacturers. They would produce candy in an upstairs room of the former Heyde, Cox & Townsend Building on Jefferson Street.
The location right off the square was known then as the Gem Cafe. The restaurant stayed open 24 hours a day, and if the owners had to be away, they would hire a deputy or constable to sit on the step to watch it. This was a downtown landmark for many years, with many ball fans going there after games.
Just north of the restaurant was a long-time barbershop and then the old United Cigar Store that sold all kinds of tobacco, cigars, and cigarettes. Next door north, there was often a restaurant, with different owners running the eating place.
On the opposite side of North Market Street, there was a barbershop and restaurant. Robinson, who started the Gem Cafe, also owned that restaurant for a while.
The first block on the west side of North Market Street was also the site of the Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A&P), which had a good sized store there. On the southwest corner of North Market and West Union was a millinery store known as C. I. Silver; at a later date this was the location of Sanders’ Shoe Store. The European Hotel was located above the A & P Store and C. I. Silver’s store, and was a popular stopping place for drummers and salesmen who could spend a night in town. Later it became apartments and the A & P location became “The Sally Shop,” owned by Sally Johnson.
The visitors to the city would also stop at the three-story Goodall Hotel at the present site of the Galleria (City Hall) on the Marion Square.
The second block on the west side of North Market Street had the F. E. Parks Pharmacy (200 N. Market Street). Parks family also had a feed store at the rear of the corner of the building in the first block of the west side of North Market. This building was owned by Marion attorney Delos L. Duty, and he kept his offices upstairs. The building and window still bear his name.
Next door to the drug store at 202 North Market was Isam Harrison’s Menswear Store, which was valued for its high grade of men’s clothing. Many of the coal miners would come to the store to buy high-priced clothes in which to dress up on Saturday night. Much of the upstairs area over the businesses provided living areas called “flats.”
On the east side of the street, in the second block from the square, there was a vacant lot where carnivals or street fairs were held. Fairs would wrap around the second block of East Union Street and Jefferson Street and take up most of the hitching post lots.
The Roland Theater, also known as the opera house, was located at 112-114 East Union Street. It was a two-balcony, three-level opera house. Norman went there as a child to see “Peck’s Bad Boy,” as well as the movie, “Kenny Gordon.”
Eventually, a furniture store was erected on the once empty lot that had witnessed fun days with fairs. A saloon also later was opened there. Happy Norman recalled being headmaster in the mid-1930s for the Brown’s Business College in the upstairs area at the site.
LaRue Swinney’s family operated a grocery store on the north corner of the second block of North Market. Across the street, John Azemis and Acquilas Carathomus operated the North Star Confectionery, selling ice cream they manufactured. Others also operated a confectionery there until it became the Smith & Hepler grocery store which operated there for many years.
The Hyde Hardware Store in the second block closed its doors in 1939 and the Kroger Store was opened at the location.
In the third block on the west side of North Market was the Family Theater. The theater featured serials on Saturdays to keep the children coming back to see the next episode in the serial. The theater also had a piano player to help boost the crowds during the silent movies. Many years later this became a second movie house known as “The Plaza.”
Near the theater was a clothing store and the First Church of Christ or Christian Church.
Across the street, there was a big, two-story house which was called the Jennings Hotel. Next door was a small, popular restaurant owned by Charles Upshaw where people had to wait for a counter stool to get breakfast.
In the middle of the second block, at 215 North Market, was the E. T. Hudgens Funeral Home. A furniture store at 307 North Market was owned and operated by Otis W. Williams.
Gallager’s Lumber Company extended over a large area in the 400 block at the site of the present day Goss Appliances. In the area also was a butcher shop, barbershops, and other retail stores. Across the street on the east side of Market there was a retail store for paints and varnishes and upstairs an opera house.
Fluck Market occupied 412 North Market, and there also was a barbershop, the Adams Shoe Store, and a restaurant, The Egyptian Cafe. In the next block north there would often be outdoor shows and theater productions as different groups such as magicians visited Marion.
The area also had mills for both flour and corn meal. The flour mill would sell flour all over Southern Illinois. Trains would bring in wheat and it would be unloaded for the making of flour. A 25-pound sack of flour could be purchased for 10 cents.
Some of the first auto dealerships were also located just north of Illinois Central Railway on the west side of North Market. The Hayton Auto Dealership was a landmark in the area for a longtime, and Sanders Market was in a nearby two-story building.
Norman recalled a big merchant promotion that used to take place on the Square. The merchants provided tickets with purchases, and a name would be drawn on the Square each Saturday afternoon to get a winner. Norman, along with Virgil Jones who managed the Woolworth Store, would announce the winning numbers.
“Many, many prizes and money were given to people at that time. Saturday was a big day on the public square; many of the stores stayed open on Saturday night until 8:00 p.m.
“We would be on the back of a truck, and we had 10 tennis balls with numbers on them. I did not have a megaphone but used my own voice to call out the numbers. “You had to get into Marion early in order to be able to hitch your horse and wagon to the hitching rack on both sides of East Union north of the present City Hall, and, later on, to park your autos in the parking places.”
Norman recalled that the town had many livery stables before the advent of the automobile. There were horses and one and two-horse carriages to rent. One of the biggest livery stables was located on East Main Street behind the present Galleria. There was later a brick building that was for many years, the Marion Baking Company. There was another livery in the 200 block of East Main Street and near the rear of the present Banterra Bank’s West Main drive-in facility.
The community used to celebrate New Year’s Eve with the blowing of train whistles and the ringing of church and school bells. There would be lots of noise from five minute before midnight until five minutes afterwards. Young boys would also shoot guns with Iive ammunition and break the clock face on the Square.
(Remembering Marion, By Henry “Happy” Norman, as told to Mary Lou Roberts and printed in the 1989 Sesquicentennial History, WCHS)