James William “Willie” Westbrook, the first President of the First National Bank and two term Marion Mayor, was born in Gallatin County, Illinois. On January 26, 1855 his father, Francis M. Westbrook married Paulina Lafferty and on November 8, 1855, gave birth to their first child, James William.
In January 1857, his family moved to Marion and on the following July his father rented a building off of Samuel Dunaway at 116 E. Main St. on the corner of Madison Street and opened a general store. He rented off Dunaway for two years and then in 1859 bought the corner lot on the 900 block of the public square (south side of the square, east corner of S. Market St.).
When he bought the lot there was only a small frame building standing there and this is where he started selling his goods on the square. F.M. Westbrook would ultimately become one of Marion’s prosperous businessmen who operated a handful of partnership businesses on and around the square, including dry goods stores and tobacco barns.
After his father’s business in the 900 block of the square was burned out a number of times he eventually rebuilt a large two story brick building in that location in 1899. This building housed one of his businesses called the “New York Store.” The building was still in use in 1963 operated as Goss Appliance’s when it was finally demolished by fire for the last time.
In the 1860 census, Willie was 4 years old living in the household of his parents in Marion with his brother, Willis F. 1, M.W. Lafferty, his mother’s 24 year old sister, and Mary M. Mathis 13. Both M.W. and Mary claim to be from Indiana so Mary is probably associated with the sister, M.W.
In 1870, “Willie” was living with his parents, brother and sister. His father claimed his occupation to be tobacconist and also claimed a real estate value of $4,000 and personal estate of only $300, so the family was doing very well for the times. “Willie” and his brother, Willis, were attending school. Also living with the family was 16 year old Mary Macy, who was likely a domestic servant, and James Grider who was a county constable. Grider was a Civil War vet who first served in the 128th Illinois Infantry, and was afterwards transferred to the 31st Illinois Infantry . He took part in the grand march with Sherman “from Atlanta to the Sea,” and was with his regiment only fifteen miles away from Rolla, N. C, when Gen. Joseph E. Johnson surrendered to Sherman. Grider went on to hold many county positions.
In 1880, Willie was 24 years old and unmarried, living at home with his brother Willis and sister Daisy. He was listed on the census as a clerk in a dry goods store, which was without question, his father’s business on the square.
1880 was the last time James W. Westbrook could be found in the census records.
The First National Bank was incorporated in January 1891 as a successor to the Exchange Bank of J. H. Burnett and H.T. Goddard. J.W. Westbrook served as the bank’s first president. The bank occupied the location on the square where the Bank of Marion now sits. In its early days, the bank occupied the bottom floor of the C.H. Denison building, a wood and brick building which burned and was rebuilt in its current form in 1916.
Later, the same year, on September 8, 1891, J.W. was married to Maude V. Bainbridge in Williamson County.
J.W. Westbrook served as Mayor of Marion for two one year terms in 1893 and 1894.
J.W. and Maude went through a very, difficult divorce in 1894. At that time, they had only one child, a daughter who was three at the time of the divorce.
Apparently, after the divorce, he moved to Oklahoma City where he was reported living in 1904 as operating a business. Later, he re-located to Spokane, Washington where he was living when he died.
J.W. Westbrook died at age 61 on March 24, 1917of erysipelas of the face at his home in Spokane, Washington. Erysipelas, or “St. Anthony’s fire”[as it is called, is an acute infection of the skin particularly the outer layers of skin which becomes raised, red, inflamed, swollen , painful and can be accompanied with fevers, chills, headaches and vomiting. Ironically, this is curable today with either oral or intravenous antibiotics. Death resulting from this condition appears to be due to a septic condition or lowered immunity.
According to his obituary in the Marion Evening Post, “The body of J. Will Westbrook arrived here Saturday night from Spokane, Washington, and the funeral services were held Sunday afternoon at the First Methodist Church and were well attended by his former friends and associates in this city. He was very kind hearted and well-liked by everyone and numbered his friends here by the hundred.”
He was survived by one sister, Mrs. Charles Mitchell, who with her husband accompanied the body here.
Rev. Laurence Smith, pastor of the First Methodist church preached the funeral sermon. The pallbearers were all close friends of Mr. Westbrook when he was here. They were W. H. Warder, E. B. Casey, Joab Goodall, Shannon Holland, J.C. Mitchell, D. T. Hartwell, Charles A. Gent and George Campbell.
Those from outside of the county who were called here for the funeral were Mr. and Mrs. Guy St. Clair and two daughters of St. Louis, Mrs. William S Cantrell of Benton, George Cantrell of Benton, John Mitchell of Mt. Carmel, Charles A. Gent of Chicago and Mrs. Pauline McCardell of Dallas, TX.
(Extracted from Federal Census Records; Marion Evening Post obit, March 1907; Illinois Marriage Records; compiled by Colleen Norman)