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
Category Archives: WW II
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
Donald Houston Bethel was born November 12, 1919, in Ozark, Illinois, in Johnson County, the son of Jewell Guy Bethel Sr. (1896-1970) and Elma Mae Houston (1900-1991).
Although his obituary states that he was born in Ozark, Illinois only one month after his birth he and his parents were listed in the 1920 census as living at Harrisburg in Saline County. Continue reading
Bill L. Bainbridge was born July 8, 1922, in Marion, to Lawrence and Lottie Mae (Eyre) Bainbridge. Having been born into a family of merchants, Bill was a WWII veteran who spent his life in the family jewelry business and was the great-grand-son of J.B. Bainbridge, an early pioneering Marion merchant. Continue reading
Harry W. Beneke was born in Burlington, Iowa, July 3, 1926, to Harry W. and Catherine (Rohleder) Beneke Sr. His father was killed in an elevator accident when Harry was in the fourth grade. After the accident, Harry began his working career early as a butcher for Benteco Chain Stores of Burlington, Iowa. Continue reading