The following post is a reproduction of an article appearing in the Marion Daily Republican dated March 22, 1940. It summarizes the presence of the bell making, Stockton family who were a very early pioneer family that settled in Marion and distributed their bells all over the west and midwest from their home and factory on North Market between E. Boulevard and W. Stockton Streets. Continue reading
Category Archives: People
Jessie Russell (Gardner) Duncan, dedicated teacher for over five decades, was born on May 18, 1904 in Lexington, Tennessee, the late-in-life daughter and sixth child of Henry and Jessie Gardner. By the time the 1910 federal census was taken, the Gardner family had moved to Marion and was living at 514 W. Maplewood Street in a home which they owned with a mortgage.
Her 55 year old father, Henry, was working as a laborer at a railroad tie plant, which was likely the American Creosote Company on the south side of Marion on Rt. 37 where Short Brothers is now located. Continue reading
Clyde Owen Maynard, one of the original Marion Park District Commissioners in 1957 and an active civic leader, was born April 18, 1912, in Herrin to Otis A. Maynard (1882-1926) and Nellie Williams (1887-xxxx).
The 1920 federal census found 7 year old Clyde in his parents’ home at 1004 S. 13th Street in Herrin, Illinois, which they owned free of mortgage. His parents were aged 36 and 32 respectively and his father was working as a mine boss. Siblings of Clyde living in the home were Ruth 14, Leonard 13, Paul 11 and Marvin age 4. Continue reading
John Kaeser and his wife, Emelia Walther moved from St. Morgan, Illinois, to Williamson County in 1884 and settled on a farm east of Marion at the old Moeller Crossroad (Rt. 13 and 166). They brought with them their two sons Louis, ten years old, and Fred, eight years of age, along with daughter Emelia who was then six years of age. John Kaeser’s parents came from Switzerland in a sailboat during the late 1700’s or early 1800’s. Continue reading
Ray Miller, teacher, principal, county officer, and a second generation Fair Board member, was born on April 26, 1891 in Williamson County to John Goodall Miller and Mary Ellen Krantz on a farm in Southern Township.
Nine years after Ray was born, according to the 1900 federal census, the family was living in Southern Precinct on the Miller family farm which they owned free of mortgage. Southern Township/Precinct starts just north of the Marion City Lake and included the villages of Hudgens and Chamness, extending south to Pulley’s Mill where Johnson County starts. Ray’s parents were farmers and were both in their mid-30’s. Children present in the home at the time were Ray aged 9 and daughter, Jessie M. aged 6. Ray’s mother indicated that she had birthed three children with two surviving indicating the loss of one child already in their marriage. Continue reading