Category Archives: Businesses

Marion Businesses

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 →

Dunaway, Samuel L. 1895-1976, Dunaway Insurance Agency

Posted on by April 22, 2014

Samuel L Dunaway 1895-1976Samuel Lum Dunaway, Marion businessman, civic leader, WWI veteran and grandson of early county pioneer Sam Dunaway, was born on April 12, 1895, in Marion to Thomas Dunaway and Emma Benson.

Sam descended from one of the families that lived at Old Bainbridge, the village that served as the seat of county government, west of Marion, prior to creation of the county seat in Marion.

His father, Thomas Dunaway, retired Marion merchant, who died in 1921, was the son of Samuel Dunaway, one of the settlers of Bainbridge. Thomas Dunaway was born near that pioneer village in 1848, the last of 15 children in the family. Continue reading →

Sorgen, Carl B. 1904-1989, Carl Sorgen Studios

Posted on by January 20, 2014

Carl Sorgen Studio 1951
Carl Sorgen Studio 1952
Carl Sorgen Studio 1956
Carl Sorgen Studio 1957
Carl Sorgen Studio 1960\'s

Carl B. Sorgen, professional photographer for Marion, Williamson County and the Marion Daily Republican through the 1950’s and 1960’s, was born in Carbondale, Illinois on August 5, 1904, to Paul Sorgen and Nellie Barber. He grew up and attended Carbondale schools.

On October 10, 1936, he married Miss Hester Louise “Dink” Davis of Marion, the daughter of Hester Louis “Heck” Davis and Georgia Stapleton. “Heck” and his wife operated Davis Market located at 1005 E. Main where Small’s Grocery is now located today. The Davises resided on S. Grey Street nearby. “Heck” also was Marion Chief of Police in the early years of the 1950’s. Continue reading →

Hay, John A. 1902-1967, Ferrell-Hay Law Firm

Posted on by January 17, 2014

John Hay 1902-1967
John Hay 1902-1967

John Allen Hay was born in Marion on March 17, 1902, at 513 S. Market Street in the home of his grandparents, Romulus and Adelle Holland who built the home in 1875. John was the second child born to the marriage of Charles W. Hay (1873-1967) and Elizabeth “Bess” Holland.

John’s mother, Bess Holland, died in 1908 when he was only six years old and the situation was reflected in the 1910 census. His grandfather, Romulus Holland, owner of the home on S. Market, was 64 and a salesman for a coal oil distributor. John’s father, Charles W. Hay, owned a shoe store at 304 Public Square, next to the First National Bank and was a widower, 37 years of age. Continue reading →