Thomas Jefferson Youngblood, Marion Mayor, was born in Osage, Laclede County, Missouri, March 8, 1857. His father was Solomon B. Youngblood, who was born on the old Jacob Sanders place, about seven miles northeast of Marion, on February 18, 1827. His father moved to Missouri in his youth and on January 5, 1854, married Lucinda Tyree, a native of Southwestern Missouri, where she was born in 1827. During the Civil War Solomon enlisted in the Union army serving with Company D, 24th Regiment of the Missouri Infantry. Solomon received an injury which his third wife would claim after his death at age 63 on October 6, 1891 in Hardin County, Illinois. Continue reading
Category Archives: Officials
Raymond L. McCormick, former Marion City Commissioner, WWII veteran and civic leader, was born on Tuesday, August 2, 1921, in Marion, the son of Ray and Ora (Cothran) McCormick, being one of five children. A Marion directory places the family in a home at 1204 E. Parham Street in 1928. Continue reading
William N. Mitchell was the paternal ancestor of a long line of prominent citizens, he served as Williamson County Clerk, Marion Postmaster, was the fourth and last person to serve as President of an incorporated Marion Board of Trustees before Marion started using the Mayoral form in 1874 and he helped organize and ran on the first ever Republican ticket in Williamson County, not to mention his involvement in the first Republican county newspaper. Continue reading
Harry R. Rodd was born August 15, 1912 in DuQuoin to Roy Edgar Rodd (1880-1968) and Lela May Calvert (1886-1974). Harry’s father, Roy, was born on a farm in Williamson County in 1880 in the now defunct Western precinct that we know today as Blairsville Township in the northwest corner of the county. He spent most of his life living in Marion and worked as an insurance salesman. Continue reading
William Clark Shannon, who held public office in Williamson County for more than a quarter of a century, including those of Marion Mayor, City Magistrate, County Sheriff and County Treasurer, was born in Cannon City, Colorado to Abraham and Mary Shannon on March 13, 1888.
William’s father, Abraham was a full blooded Irish coal miner who was born in Northern Ireland in 1861 and immigrated in 1876, at the age of 15 to America to work the mines. He became a citizen in 1884. William’s mother, Mary, was full blooded English, but was naturalized by the process of her parents becoming citizens. Continue reading