Marion’s bloody history has been the subject of numerous books, articles and documentaries. “Bloody Williamson,” Paul M. Angle’s widely read story of our county, is still in publication after more than half a century. Perhaps one of the reasons for the intense curiosity about our past is the baffling contrast between the genuine warmth and friendliness of the people you meet today and the violent heartlessness of some who lived here just one or two generations ago. No story better illustrates this paradox than the tragedy of Lory and Ethel Price. Continue reading
Category Archives: Departments
In the fall of 1974, two unexplainable deaths and suspicious symptoms caused in another six patients at the Marion Memorial Hospital created a scare in Marion. Was there a serial killer working in the hospital? The details of the event are as follows. Continue reading
This post contains an article dated September 9, 1941 and notes a few details about Marion and the regions past. First is the potential sale of the Marion Waterworks. Secondly is the originally planned routing of Interstate 57 which was to avoid Marion altogether and swing through Centralia and Carbondale instead. Can you imagine how different Marion’s economy would be without the interstate being here? Third, the last part of this article deals with the paving of Boyton Street, which may seem inconsequential, but how would you get from Market to Court before it was there? Continue reading
Back in a more innocent time of Marion’s history, this story was printed in the Sunday Magazine edition of the St. Louis Post Dispatch on April 8, 1928, and recounts the story of a thwarted Marion love affair. Well, today they would probably call it “stalking”. Continue reading
On last run from the old “fire barn”. Fireman Bob Yost pilots fire truck on way to new station on North Court Street. Fireman Jack Wells is beside him. Transfer of firefighting equipment from the former old station which had been in use since it was in reality a horse barn more than 50 years ago was affected at noon Wednesday. Continue reading