Hugh Milo Parks was born in Rock Creek precinct near Crab Orchard December 4, 1845. He was the son of Lewis Corder Parks and Isabelle Jean Deason, and a member of a family that dates its residence in Illinois back to the early pioneer days. Continue reading
Category Archives: Businesses
Marion has had its share of heroes over the years. The subject of this work is World War II and how one of our local citizens answered the call.
We had a family here in Marion that sent four of its sons to the service and only one survived. In Williamson County we had two sons from Paulton that died in prisoner of war camps. We have other families that sent four and five of their sons to the effort. The first casualty of the war from Marion was a man who died in the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan and he is still entombed in the Battleship Arizona. Continue reading
The handwriting must have been on the wall for U.S. involvement in World War II prior to 1939 when war broke out in Europe. News articles from 1938 noted our vulnerability in placing our air corps bases and armament stockpiles in coastal locations. In those times, Southern Illinois had 61 percent of the population on welfare, one of the highest in the nation and more people in this end of the state were out of work than those working. Continue reading
Robert and David Sneddon opened Sneddon’s Confectionery at 1201 West Main Street in Marion in 1940. The two brothers came to America with their father James Sneddon in 1920, leaving their home in King’s Seat just across the Firth or Forth from Edinburgh and just west of St. Andrews and the North Sea. Continue reading
Robert Wilson Boatright was born in Harco, Illinois in Saline County, January 19, 1889, the son of Alexander Scott Boatright (1862-1906) and Lucy Emeline Carr (1863-1940).
In the 1900 census, Robert was 11 and living with his parental family on a farm in Brushy Township in Saline County. Robert had three siblings, Clyde 15, Maude 14 and Roma aged 1. Continue reading