Little is recorded about the early Marion baseball clubs so I wanted to get this out there in hopes that someone may still have some knowledge of the early clubs. According to Bob Jackson, a huge baseball fan and Williamson County Historical Society president, the later teams were called “hard road clubs” and the competitions fell among city teams spread from Murphysboro to Harrisburg. Unfortunately, the first real hard road (old route 13) didn’t become a hard road (concrete) until 1922 and was only completed at the beginning of the Herrin Massacre times so I’m not sure if the term applies to these early teams or not. Continue reading
Category Archives: All Marion Content
Dr. E.L. Denison by horse in front of his office in Marion, Illinois ca 1880. Unknown Goodall standing on walk. Photo courtesy of the Williamson County Museum
Dr. Edward L. Denison, physician, legislator and Marion Alderman, was born August 16, 1835, in Senaca, New York. He was the son of Edward L. Denison (1789-1871) and Eveline Hitchcock (1808-1886) and the brother of prosperous Marion businessman and Mayor, Charles H. Denison.
Edward had four brothers and sisters: David Delome Denison (1827-1864), Charles Hoton Denison (1837-1908), Harriet Newel Denison (1840) and Amelia Emma Denison (1843). Charles H. married Mary Elizabeth Bundy Mar. 21, 186x; Harriet married George A. Seaver June 20, 185x, and Amelia married J. D. Walden on October 24, 1864.
Edward L., the father, moved the family to Huron County, Ohio in 1844 and in the 1850 census the family was living in Ruggles, Ashland County, Ohio. All four of their children were born in Ohio. He then moved the family on to McHenry County, Illinois in 1854. Edward L., the son and our subject, attended college at Marengo Seminary and moved to Southern Illinois in 1857. He taught school in Jackson, Union and Williamson Counties and studied medicine. Continue reading
Henry Thomas Goddard, banker and Marion alderman was born on the 20th of June, 1852, at Marion, in Williamson County, Illinois, the son of James T. and Winifred (Spiller) Goddard. Henry’s father, James, was born in Franklin County, Virginia, in … Continue reading
William Harvey Howell, merchant, alderman, & entrepreneur was born in Monongalia County, West Virginia, on the 4th day of May, 1845, the son of George and Mary Howell. His great-grandfather, Samuel Howell, emigrated from England to Maryland, and his grandparents, Annie and Laban Howell, came from Maryland into West Virginia.
William H. Howell’s father, George Howell, was one of seven sons, good old English stock. His father died when he was only three years old and his mother married again two years later, which caused William to live with his grandfather Howell until he was sixteen years old. In March, 1862, he came west to Carbondale, Illinois, and there learned fine carpentering and soon became a contractor. In 1869 he went to Kansas and during the boom in that state he carried on an extensive contracting business. Continue reading
John C. B. Smith was born on February 3, 1859 to Thomas Smith (1829 – xxxx) and Narcissus Jane May (1835 – xxxx) in New Columbia, Massac County, Illinois.
In the 1850 census, his 22 year old, unmarried father, Thomas, was living in Massac County, Illinois with 24 year old James and Queentina Smith who are suspected to be his brother and sister-in-law. Thomas’s future bride to be, Narcissus Jane May, lived three houses down from them. On October 24th of the same year, 1850, Thomas Smith and Jane May were married. Continue reading