Joseph Warder and Ann Thomas Kirkham (1822) were married near the Blue Lick Springs, in Fleming County, Kentucky on Feb 3, 1842. They resided in Flemingsburg for 7 or 8 years and then moved to Maysville, the county seat of Mason County, Kentucky where they lived for about two years. Two children, Elizabeth and Isabell, had been born to them while they resided in Flemingsburg.
In 1850, Joseph was a carpenter and Annie was a school mistress. Elizabeth was 6 and Isabella was 2. They were living in Maysville in Mason County, Kentucky. A son, Walter Warder, was born to them during their residence in Maysville, on Apr 7, 1851.
In the autumn of 1851 the family moved to Johnson County, Illinois, coming down the Ohio River by steamboat, landing at Metropolis, and then by wagon to Johnson County. Three other children were born to them after their move to Illinois, one a son, Joseph, who died in infancy, and two others, William H. Warder and Annie Gertrude Warder. Their mother, Mrs. Anne Kirkham Warder, was the first woman teacher in Johnson County, where she became superintendent of the Vienna Public School in 1856.
In 1860 William was 11 months old. He had two sisters and one brother. Mary E. was 16, Isabella was 11, and Walter was 9. Father, Joseph, was a farmer in Johnson County.
By the 1870 census, William and Gertrude, were the only children still at their family home in Johnson County, Illinois near Grantsburg. Father, Joseph’s real estate was valued at $1,500. Also in 1870, William’s sister, Isabell “Belle” Warder married prominent druggist and businessman William H. Bundy in Marion, Illinois.
The family resided on a farm about 6 miles east of Vienna, the county seat of Johnson County, Illinois, until the year 1873 when the parents, Joseph and Anne, accompanied by their two younger children, William H. and Gertrude, moved to Carbondale, in Jackson County, Illinois for the purpose of educating the children, both of whom graduated from the Southern Illinois Normal University at Carbondale.
William H. Warder graduated from the Southern Illinois Normal University with the class of 1877. An 1877 Vienna Yeoman newspaper article carried in the Egyptian Press dated May 24th, stated, “Willie Warder, reared near Grantsburg, will graduate with highest honors of his class at the close of the present term of Carbondale Normal … He was selected to deliver valedictory, on June 14 … He is not quite 18 years old.”
From 1878 to 1879 William taught school at Cross Roads School northeast of Marion where Khoury League and Songbird Roads meet.
The 1905 Souvenir History of the county notes that in 1878, W.H. Warder sold insurance. Later, but in the same time period, he was admitted to the Williamson County Bar Association and opened a law office at Marion in 1881. An 1877 ad in the Egyptian Press advertised Hartwell and Warder in the Robertson’s Block (1200 block) on the square.
At this time the development of the vast deposits of coal in the county, Williamson had just begun and capital was coming in a flood for investment in the opening of the mines. The movement brought wealth and population. The young attorney directed his attention to actively promoting the mining industry, procuring options, obtaining leases and buying and selling coal lands and mining interests. His practice was largely with coal and other corporations by means of which he became the owner of valuable real estate and in receipt of a liberal income.
His election as representative was his first political office but he was a delegate to five national Democratic conventions and an alternate at four conventions. He attended every Democratic National for 54 years. His party also honored him with the nomination as congressman.
On April 26, 1882, William married Meta G. Goodall (1865-1935). She was the daughter of Hardin Goodall and Harriet Ellen Pulley. Hardin Goodall, well known Marion merchant and city alderman who had several businesses was County Sheriff in 1868– 1870, the trying period after the Civil War.
William H. Warder was a representative in the forty first and forty-second general assemblies, 1899 and 1901. His older brother, Walter Warder of Cairo, represented the same district in 1899 as Senator. Senator Warder, as president pro tempore of the state senate, acted as chief executive during Governor Tanner’s absence from the state and dealt with the labor troubles at Carterville in 1899. The brothers differed in politics, William, the Representative, a Democrat, Walter, the Senator, and a Republican. Both practiced law in Marion, Walter from 1874 until he moved to Cairo in 1880 and William from 1881 until his death.
During Representative Warder’s second term his senatorial colleague was O.H. Burnett of Marion. In both assemblies, William was a member of the Democratic steering committee for the house. One of his speeches received newspaper comment throughout the state, particularly in Chicago. He favored paved roads, “hard roads,” throughout the state, a revolutionary stand at the beginning of the twentieth century. His suggestion was not even taken seriously as a hope for the future.
By the 1900 census, he and Ann (Meta) had been married 18 years and had three daughters: Laura Belle, 16; Hattie, 15, and Evelyn (Velce) Warder, 14.
After the White building was built in 1900 by A.F. White, William’s law office was re-located into the White building on the south side of the square next to S. Market Street roughly where the lobby of the Civic Center is located today.
In 1904, Warder was a director of the Williamson County Savings Bank alongside George H. Goodall, John B. Bainbridge, J.M. Burkhart and Manheim Cantor.
In the 1910 census the couple was living at 502 South Market Street in Marion. Daughter, Laura Belle Warder, was a stenographer in a lawyer’s office. William was an attorney in general practice. Also in the home was Evelyn, aged 24, who was their daughter that also went by Velce. Living with the family was a domestic servant named Cora.
During this time period William had moved his office from the south side of the square to the second floor at 1201 Public Square over the A.H. Joseph clothing store next to E. Main Street where it would remain until his death.
William’s legal practice and abstract work occupied a full life, but he found time to be superintendent of the Sunday school conducted by the Christian church at Marion. He was an original stockholder of the Marion Pressed Brick Company, chartered in 1903, on the west edge of Marion where N. Carbon Street is now by the I.C. railroad tracks. He was Master at Arms of the Monitor Lodge #236 and a member of the board of the First Christian Church. He also belonged to the Williamson County Bar Association and was on the board of directors and attorney for the Marion Building and Loan Association. He served as Attorney for the receivership of the Marion closed banks during the depression.
William was an early member of the Marion Elks Lodge #800 and served on their building committee in 1907 to establish the Elks home on S. Market Street.
When the Marion Carnegie Library was dedicated in 1916, Mrs. W.H. Warder served as one of the first board members.
During WWI, in 1917 and 1918, a group of businessmen called the 4 Minute Men gave public talks to calm and educated the population and William Warder was among the original group.
In 1920 the Warder family was still at their home at 502 S. Market Street. Only Laura Belle, aged 36, was still living with them. She was still working as a stenographer in her father’s law office. William and Meta were 60 and 50 years old respectively.
In the 1930 census, William and his wife were still on South Market Street. He was 70 years old, but still practicing law. Laura Belle was a bookkeeper in the law office. Hill Lola Park was a roomer in the home and worked as a store manager downtown.
William’s wife died on March 22, 1935. Her obit was captured by the Marion Daily Republican as follows, “Mrs. William H. Warder, wife of the Marion attorney, who is rated as the “Dean” of the Williamson County Bar Association, passed away at her home at 502 South Market St. at 8:30 o’clock Friday morning. Meta Goodall Warder was born in Marion, Illinois, on June 16, 1864, and died at her home on South Market Street, on March 22, 1935, at 8:30 o’clock A.M. Mrs. Warder was the daughter of Hardin and Harriet A. Goodall, both of who preceded her in death. She was married on the 26th day of April, 1882, at Marion, Illinois, to Attorney William H. Warder, who survives her. They celebrated their golden wedding anniversary at their home, on April 26, 1932.
In the following year, William H. Warder, died on June 8, 1936 in Marion at the age of 76. Both were buried in the South Annex in Rose Hill Cemetery. William had lived in Marion for over 50 years.
East Warder Street in Marion is located at the intersection of the 500 block of S. Market Street and is undoubtedly named after the Warder family.
Notes on the Children:
Laura Belle Warder. 1884-1972 Laura Belle led an interesting life, being educated far beyond most other people in Southern Illinois in the early 1900’s, remaining single all her life. Upon graduating from the Christian College at Columbia, Missouri and from University of Illinois in 1905 she worked in her father’s law office for more than 20 years as a stenographer and bookkeeper. In 1933 she became Master of Chancery in the Williamson County Court. In the 1940’s she was known to have owned the old Robertson Block in the 1200 block of the public square where here father practiced law and it became known as the Warder block. Upon her retirement she devoted herself to travel, seeing the world and maintaining an active social life. She went to Europe four times, the last time when she was in her 80’s. She went on a six month trip around the world, took a trip to Hawaii and visited all but 4 or 5 states. She belonged to the Christian Church, the Fortnightly Club and the Business and Professional Women’s Club. As she got older she was known for driving her car and getting many tickets and having many accidents; once she was hit by a train while crossing the tracks on a red light. In the end she was hit by a drunk driver as she walked across South Market Street near her home. She died on February 29, 1972 of injuries she received at the age of 88 years old.
Harriet Warder Stotlar. She was born Nov. 28, 1884 in Marion and died Dec. 13, 1976 at her home at 306 S. Madison Street in Marion. She graduated MTHS in the class of 1903 and married Fred Stotlar in 1907, who died December 7, 1946. They had a son named Warder Stotlar who was very active in Marion youth sports and preceded her in death in 1965. She had two grandsons: Fred and Dick Stotlar of Marion and 4 great-grandchildren. She was a member of the First Christian Church and is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery.
Evelyn “Velce” Warder. She graduated the MTHS class of 1904 and married Hosea V. Ferrell, another prominent Marion attorney. They had two children: William H. and Evelyn. They lived at 200 E. College Street. Velce moved to Belleville after the death of her daughter Evelyn to be close to her son William in Belleville, Illinois and this is where she passed away on April 28, 1983. Her body was returned to Marion and she was interred next to her husband, Hosea, and daughter, Evelyn, at Rose Hill Cemetery.
Their son, William H. Ferrell, followed in his father’s footsteps and was a career lawyer in Belleville, Illinois. He was born on October 10, 1914 and died in Belleville on October 10, 2001 at age 87.
Sources: Notes on the Kirkham family in America. Compiled by Walter Warder, 1922, Historical Souvenir of Williamson County, History of Gallatin, Saline, Hamilton, Franklin and Williamson Counties, Pioneer Folks and Places, Erwin’s Williamson County, Illinois, United States Census Records, Events in Egypt, The Warder Family from Nannie Parks file at the Williamson County Historical Society. Compiled by Colleen Norman.