William Riley Hodge was born November 9, 1887 on a farm near Goreville in Johnson County to Alexander Hodge and Laura Belle Godwin. The 1900 federal census located the family living on a farm near Tunnel Hill, Illinois in Johnson County. Alexander 41 and Laura Belle 32 had six children living with them on the farm. The children were Myrtle 14, William R. 11, Oda L. 10, Norman E. 7, Grace L. 4 and Fredrick aged 1 month. Laura Belle reported that she had birthed 7 children and 6 were living, the ones present in the home. The farm they lived on was owned free of mortgage. When the 1910 census was taken the family was still farming in Elvira Township in Johnson County. Laura Belle had passed away in 1904 so a 47 year old, widowed Alexander continued farming and taking care of five children left in the home, William 21, Odie 19, Norman 17, Grace 14 and Raymond 9. William was working as a farm laborer helping his father on the farm.
On October 22, 1913, William married Nettie Blair in McDowell, West Virginia. By 1917, the couple had located in Marion where William filled out his WWI Draft registration card. He indicated that he was living on S. Court Street, married with two children and employed at the Big Muddy Mine working for the Big Muddy Fuel Company as a carpenter. He was described physically as medium height, slender build with blue eyes and dark hair.
In the 1920 census, 32 year old William and 29 year old Nettie were living at 807 S. Court in a home they owned with a mortgage. William listed himself as a coal miner with two children, Lorine L. 4 and Laura G. aged 3. A 1922 city directory confirms both the same address and occupation, but by 1923 that changed.
The 1923 city directory lists William and Nettie as still living at 807 S. Court but they are now operating a grocery store at 910 S. Court. This location is where the Huck’s Store is now located at the corner of Boyton and Court St. in 2024, before the Huck’s store and after the Hodge’s it became the home of the Busy Bee Market. A couple of years later in the 1925 city directory, they are listed as living at 901 S. Court which they will maintain over the decades.
In 1924 and again in 1926 William was listed in the paper as applying for a butcher’s license from the city, a fee of $25 was required for the license. An ad in the local paper in 1926 advertising Red Crown gasoline listed W.R. Hodge as a filling station using their brand, this conforms with a 1928 city directory listing his store and filling station at 910 S. Court.
When the 1930 census was taken, William 42 and Nettie 39 owned the home they lived in at 901 S. Court Street and valued it at $1,500. William was listed as a general store owner while Nettie was listed as the store’s manager. Living with the couple were their children, Lorine 14, Geraldine 13 and Avada aged 7. Also in the home was Nettie’s sister, Maude Blair, a 40 year old single female.
An article appeared in the Marion Weekly Leader in 1930 indicating that William along with many other Marion businessmen had formed an organization called the Independent Merchants Minute Men who organized to protest against chain stores in Marion.
In 1933, during the depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt asked for voluntary compliance from merchants as to wage and hours paid to employees. William’s business on S. Court was one of virtually a list of every business in town who complied.
In 1933, federal monies became available to the city of Marion to widen S. Court Street and convert its ownership and maintenance over to the State of Illinois as a state route (Rt. 37). The transfer to the state was reliant on the city obtaining ownership of right of ways to widen the street. Seventeen property owners were hold outs that eventually got swayed by the intervention of people like W.R. Hodge who lived and operated a business in this section of town.
In the 1939 Marion city election, William was elected to the city council as commissioner of Streets and Alleys under Mayor Harry L. Crisp. The council would run two terms or 8 years due to WWII.
In the 1940 census, the couple then valued their home at 901 S. Court at $3,000. 52-year-old William and 49-year-old Nettie were both putting in 48-hour weeks at their grocery store at 910 S. Court. William and Nettie both noted that they had completed an 8th grade education while their 17-year-old daughter Arvada was in the 3rd year of high school and their 6-year-old daughter Mary was in the 1st grade.
When William filled out his WWII draft record in 1942, he was 54 years old and described as 5’ 7”, 130 lbs., with blue eyes, black hair and a ruddy complexion. He listed himself as a self-employed grocer.
In May, 1943, Mayor Crisp reorganized the commissioner’s duties and Hodge was reassigned as Public Property commissioner. In that same year, the city voted to float a bond to finance the installation of a water line to feed the Veteran’s Administration Hospital and a new area of Marion then called Marion Heights. Now the subdivision is called Elmwood Place and is comprised of 3rd and 4th Streets in Marion.
In 1944, the local V.F.W. sponsored the installation of a Honor Roll Service Board to be mounted on the East side of the square in front of the chasm where the Goodall Hotel sat only a few years before. This board listed servicemen from the county serving in WWII. William donated $5 for the cause.
In 1945, the city council voted to add two-way radio communications to the Marion Police Department and the units were installed at the police department and the one and only police car in March 1945.
In 1946, the Marion city council voted to purchase a broom roller to be attached to a city truck for use in sweeping the city streets.
The 1950 census, noted that 61 year old William and 57 year old Nettie were still working their grocery store at 910 S. Court and living in the same home at 901 S. Court. The only daughter left in the home was 16 year old Mary. All three family members were listed as working at the grocery store.
William’s grocery store was listed as late as 1955, but by 1957 William was listed as retired.
An article appearing in the Southern Illinoisan in January 1957 indicated that William had been elected as a director of the Williamson County Fair Board.
Hodge passed away in Marion Memorial Hospital at the age of 69 on September 17, 1957. He was a member of the First Methodist Church, Fellowship Masonic Lodge of Marion and David Herrin I.O.O.F. Lodge in Marion. He operated a grocery near his home until 1955.
Hodge was survived by his wife Nettie and children, Mrs. James Patterson and Mrs. Delmar Keller of Marion, Mrs. Jack Atwood of Carbondale and Mrs. C.L. Schillinger of Denver, Co. seven grandchildren, brothers Norman of Marion and Raymond of Chicago, and sisters Mrs. Odie Henson of Sac City, Iowa and Mrs. Grace McCormick of Newell, Iowa. Burial was in Maplewood Cemetery in Marino with Masonic Rites conducted at the funeral home.
Nettie August Hodge, aged 94, died June 17, 1985 at Fountain Nursing Home in Marion. After William’s death in 1957 she worked as a professional seamstress and lived at her home at 901 S. Court until failing health forced her to make her home with her daughter and later Fountain Nursing Home.
Mrs. Hodge was born in Ivanhoe, Virginia on November 24, 1890, the daughter of S.L. and Mary Emily Johnson Blair. Her husband, a daughter, Geraldine Keller, two brothers and two sisters preceded her in death. Survivors include three daughters, Lorine Schillinger, Littleton, Co., Arvada Patterson, Marion and Mary Lou Atwood, Carbondale; seven grandchildren and 16 great grandchildren. Burial was in Maplewood Cemetery.
(Sources: Federal census records, WWI and WWII Draft records, W. Virginia Marriage records, Southern Illinoisan, Marion Weekly Leader, Marion Evening Post, Marion city street directories, Marion Cemetery records, FindaGrave.com. Compiled by Sam Lattuca on 7/13/2024)