National attention was attracted to Southern Illinois industrial development by an article in the October 26th, 1946, issue of Business Week entitled, ”Design for Living, Illinois Style”.
Accompanied by pictures of the Illinois Ordnance Plant, the article traced the history of Southern Illinois and outlined its plans for the future as follows: Continue reading
The development of long range bombers by the Russians in the mid 1930’s put the U.S. government War Department on alert to its defense weaknesses and caused a scramble to relocate key bases and arsenal stockpiles from vulnerable coastal positions to more secure inland positions. This put Marion into the light of possibility for the manufacture and storage of a planned Chemical Warfare Arsenal. The project was planned to cost $21,000,000 and occupy 80,000,000 acres of land for the purposes of building, testing and storing chemical warfare agents. Continue reading
Alphonso J. Jennings (a.k.a. Al) was born November 25, 1863 in Virginia. Al, wrote a book in 1913 called “Beating Back” and gave some early family history. He had a penchant for spinning yarns, so we have no way of knowing how much of his book is true. He said his father, John D.F. Jennings, was a schoolmaster, doctor, Methodist minister, lawyer and editor. Continue reading
Richmond Roe Fowler, a.k.a. Rich, was born about five miles northeast of Marion on November 28, 1860. He was the son of Joseph W. Fowler and Elizabeth Davis.
After taking advantage of the schooling offered by the district schools, Judge Fowler attended Ewing College for two years, and then for two years engaged in teaching. Continue reading
William Hendrickson was born in this county on October 16, 1845, on his father’s forty acre farm, two miles north of Pittsburg. His father was Jesse Hendrickson (1822-1898) and his mother was Martha Ann Lewis (1823-1896). His father came to Williamson County from Tennessee in 1830, married Martha in 1845 and they had six children. Continue reading