Category Archives: M-N

Marion Businesses M and N

1969, Joan Crawford at Marion Pepsi-Cola Plant Opening

Posted on by May 21, 2014

Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford Visits Southern Illinois

New Marion Soft Drink Plant Opens

“There she is” … “oh, I see her” tumbled from the crowd as Joan Crawford radiant in the morning sun stepped upon the platform.

Miss Crawford, dressed in a subdued gray suit with matching hat, moved gracefully across the stage, waving, smiling at the more than 400 people who had come to the dedication ceremony of the new Pepsi-Cola plant west of Marion.

Harry Crisp, Sr. president of Marion Pepsi Cola Bottling Co., Harry Crisp Jr., vice president and general manager, James B. Sommerall, president and chief executive officer of Pepsi-Cola Co., Paul Powell, Illinois Secretary of State and other Pepsi Cola officials attended the ceremonies at the plant on Old Rt. 13 at 10:30 a.m. Saturday morning. Continue reading →

McNett Photo Studio

Posted on by March 16, 2014

McNett Photo Studio of Marion, Illinois is a business that does not appear to have been around very long. The owner James Gardiner McNett was born in Lincoln, Nebraska on February 5, 1893. When the 1910 census was taken he was 17 years old and still living with his family in Nebraska.

An Iowa state census located him in Osage, Iowa in 1915, but by the time he registered for the WWI draft in 1917, he and his mother were living here in Marion, Illinois and he was listed as a self-employed photographer. He was 23 and living at 104 N. Vicksburg St. Continue reading →

Miller, Ray 1891-1977, Miller Abstract & Title Insurance

Posted on by September 18, 2023

Ray Miller 1891-1977Ray Miller, teacher, principal, county officer, and a second generation Fair Board member, was born on April 26, 1891 in Williamson County to John Goodall Miller and Mary Ellen Krantz on a farm in Southern Township.

Nine years after Ray was born, according to the 1900 federal census, the family was living in Southern Precinct on the Miller family farm which they owned free of mortgage. Southern Township/Precinct starts just north of the Marion City Lake and included the villages of Hudgens and Chamness, extending south to Pulley’s Mill where Johnson County starts. Ray’s parents were farmers and were both in their mid-30’s. Children present in the home at the time were Ray aged 9 and daughter, Jessie M. aged 6. Ray’s mother indicated that she had birthed three children with two surviving indicating the loss of one child already in their marriage. Continue reading →

1953, Milk Delivered to Your Doorstep

Posted on by December 29, 2013

Marion City DairyRemember the days when glass bottles of milk were delivered each morning outside your door by a horse-drawn milk wagon? This was pre-depression days. The glass bottle had a little cardboard cap that kept the milk from spilling out. The bottle was returnable to the Marion City Dairy when empty with a note left in the bottle informing the delivery man how many bottles of milk you wanted. Continue reading →

2006, Marion’s Funeral Home History

Posted on by August 8, 2018

Funeral Homes
Funeral Homes
Funeral Homes
Funeral Homes
Funeral Homes

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The worthwhile accomplishments of some groups seem forgotten to history because no one has been interested enough to record their many good deeds done on a daily basis. So it is with our funeral professionals. These dedicated people have been right alongside us as Marion has grown from a small pioneer settlement into the City of which we are so proud today. But their hard work and acts of humanity toward their fellow man have been little noticed and seldom reported. Continue reading →