Charles Herbert “Herb” Whitcomb, mayor of Marion from 1931-1935 during the heart of the depression and two term County Commissioner, was born April 22, 1890 in Paducah, Kentucky to Charles Herbert Whitcomb, Sr. (1860-1896) and Mary Elizabeth Stanley (1863-1932).
His father passed away in Paducah on October 21, 1896 at the age of 36.
In 1900, he was a 10 year old boy living with his 37 year old, widowed mother, Lizzie Whitcomb and his sister, Emma who was a year older than he. There were people living with them as boarders and they were still living in Paducah, McCracken County, Kentucky.
Around 1905, the family, consisting of Charles, his mother and sister, had moved to Marion and were living in a home at 606 S. Mechanic Street. In the 1910 census, Charles was 19 and had secured employment working for the Republican-Leader newspaper operated by the Paisley family in the southeast corner of the square.
When he registered for the WW I draft in June of 1917, he was 27, single and working as a printer for the Leader. He was described as having blue eyes, light brown hair, medium build and slender with a light complexion. His family was then living at 603 S. Buchanan Street. His sister, Emma, was a clerk at this local draft board at the time.
On June 14, 1918, 28 year old Whitcomb, a foreman at the Republican-Leader, enlisted in the army and was sent to Valparaiso University in Indiana. He was attached to the 7th Regiment, Battalion E. and was discharged at Camp Taylor, Kentucky on December 28, 1918.
During the census in 1920 he was still living with his mother and sister in East Marion but they had now moved to 513 S. Mechanic Street. His sister Emma was a typist working in an attorney’s office and he was a printer.
In 1923 he was Worshipful Master of Marion’s Masonic Lodge #89.
Around 1929, he married Catherine Mary Shaeffer. Catherine was born on July 5, 1898 in Columbus, Ohio and brought two daughters into the marriage, Janice and Lorraine.
By the 1930 census the couple had three daughters, Janice 10, Lorraine 9, and Mary Elizabeth, their first child, was only one month old. They rented their home for $30 a month at 513 E. Everett Street. He was a printer in a printing office. The couple was doing well enough to keep a private, live-in, 21 year old Delia Bayles as a maid.
On January 2, 1932, his mother, Elizabeth, died and was put to rest in Paducah alongside his father.
From 1931 to 1935 he became mayor of Marion. Whitcomb’s platform was based mostly on the reformation of alcohol, campaigning against the sale of liquor in the city and the reform of dance halls that sold liquor. In 1934, in the depth of a financial depression, when work projects were in vogue, the old and mostly forgotten Aikman city cemetery was brought back to life under the administration of Mayor C.H. Whitcomb and Public Property Commissioner J.S. Johnson.
Prior to 1935, Charles and Catherine moved into his sister Emma’s home at 303 S. Mechanic. Emma owned the home while working as a book keeper for a local business.
In 1940 his family was still renting space off of his sister, Emma, at 303 ½ S. Mechanic paying $25 per month. The highest grade he had completed in school was the eighth grade, while his wife had gotten to her second year in high school. By this time, the step daughters were out of the home and their first child together, Mary was now 10. Since the 1930 census they had two more children, Kate J., 8, and Charles, 6.
When Charles registered for the WW II draft on the square in Marion in 1942, he was 52 years old and self-employed with a printing business at 400 N. Market St. He was described as 5’ 8 ½ “, 150 lbs., blue eyes, brown hair and a light complexion, still living at 303 S. Mechanic Street.
Whitcomb won a race for Williamson County Commissioner in 1951 on the Republican ticket. He served until 1954 and was re-elected to a second term that ran from 1955 through 1958. He attempted to get back in as a commissioner in the 1960 primaries but got edged out. He also had a failed attempt to re-enter Marion politics as a city commissioner in the primary race in 1967.
It was noted when he tried to run in 1960 that he had served as a state food inspector and county administrator of relief, as well as running a printing business.
Whitcomb’s sister, Emma, passed away on July 5, 1963 at the age of 74. She had been born on June 6, 1889 in Paducah, lived in Marion for 58 years and had retired in August 1962 from the Miller Abstract business. She had previously worked for Judge Rufus Neely and attorney Ralph W. Harris. Emma had worked with Rufus Neely while she served as a clerk on the local draft board during WW I. She was buried with her parents in Oak Grove Cemetery in Paducah.
Whitcomb was known to have been a member of the Marion Eagles and also had served as Chaplain for the American Legion Post 147 in 1962.
“Herb” Whitcomb died on May 20, 1969 and was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Paducah, Kentucky near his father, mother and sister Emma.
His wife, Catherine, continued living in Marion until her death on July 5, 1980. She was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery.
Notes: In 1969, one of the daughters who had become Mrs. Donald Root made the trip from their home in Jackson, Michigan to attend her father’s funeral in Paducah. They lost their family dog around Carbondale when it jumped from the car window. It was a miniature poodle named Alsi. The dog was later found at the Burger King in Carbondale and returned to the family.
(Extracted from Federal Census Records; WW I and WW II draft registration records; Southern Illinoisan articles and obits; Marion City Cemetery Records; compiled by Colleen Norman and Sam Lattuca on 03/13/ 2014; Revised 01/31/2015)