Clarence C. Cox was born October 31, 1893 in Grassy Precinct, the son of Thomas A. Cox and Nancy Catherine Rendleman and moved to Marion with his parents when eight years old.
Clarence Cox was always active in athletics. He graduated from the Marion Township High School in 1913 and while in high school captained both the championship track team and football team. Continue reading
Bunice Tyner was a Marion businessman who owned a handful of taverns in Marion and the surrounding area from 1941 up to his murder in 1960. Tyner also owned Wimpey’s Café at 106 S. Court Street, but the business was actually operated by his wife, Louina. The amusements in local taverns in those days, popular since WWII, were pinball and jukebox machines. Also, slot machines, which were technically illegal, but often tolerated under the right conditions. Continue reading
Wimpey’s Café was a converted trolley car diner that was located at 106 S. Court, squeezed into a small lot between the Marion Motel Courts and a corner gas station located at the intersection of W. Main and S. Court Streets. It was established by Bunice Tyner in 1953. Tyner also operated numerous taverns in Marion and the surrounding area since 1941. Continue reading
Annexations Big 1974 Marion Story
Marion may have overreached in its last effort, but 1974 was still a big year in annexations pushing the city limits outward.
About 125 residents in an area westward from Interstate 57 to and including the Boswell Addition voted 30 to 5 on July 23 to be annexed into the city.
A 4.5 acre subdivision in which 10 homes will be built in Moore Park west of the Marion limits was annexed into the city on September 23. Continue reading
According to available records, Martin K. Davis was born in Marion, Illinois on March 12, 1843. It is believed that Davis was orphaned at an early age. At age 19, he joined the 116th Illinois Infantry in August 1862 at Stonington, Christian Co., Illinois as a Private.
On May 22, 1863, General Ulysses S. Grant ordered an assault on the Confederate heights at Vicksburg, Mississippi. The plan called for a storming party of volunteers to build a bridge across a moat and plant scaling ladders against the enemy embankment in advance of the main attack. Continue reading