Marion Police Get First Radio Equipment

Police Radio Units Arrive – Marion Weekly Leader, Feb. 1, 1945

Department will be Equipped with Two-way Communication

The first units of a two-way radio system for the Marion Police Department were on hand awaiting installation Tuesday.

When installed, the system will provide two-way communication between police headquarters and officers on patrol in the police car.

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Love, Virgil L., 1894-1984, WWI Veteran & Commissioner

Virgil Lee Love was born in Sturgis, Kentucky to William R. Love and Maggie Myrtle Wilson on October 27, 1894. Virgil’s father, William, was a coal miner and likely followed work in the coal fields from Kentucky to Southern Illinois. The first census record they were found in was in 1910 where the family was located living in a rental home in Gaskins City, Illinois in Harrisburg Township, Saline County. 45 year old William and 41 year old Maggie during this census indicated that they had birthed 8 children, but only 3 of them lived and all were present in their home. The children were John W. 24, Arthur W. 20 and Virgil L. aged 15. Sons, John W. and Arthur W. we’re working alongside their father by working as coal miners to supplement the family income.

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902 W. Cherry St.

It is known that the Samuel Aikman family were early land owners in Williamson County and had purchased hundreds of acres in the land now roughly distributed from S. Court Street in the east and the interstate in the west and bounded N and S roughly by W. Main Street and Hendrickson.

In January of 1853, one of Samuel Aikman’s sons, James Aikman, sold a piece of 40 acre property identified as the NW quarter of the NE Quarter of Section 24, Township 9, Range 2 to a P.H. Lang. Lang held on to the property for decades but when unable to satisfy a debt, the property was sold at a Sheriff’s sale and ended up in the hands of Robert & Joan Crotfer in June of 1881. Only days later, Crotfer sold the property to William W. & Annice Clemons

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Meneese, Louis Edgar, 1883-1958, Railroad Foreman & Commissioner

Louis Edgar Meneese, who went by Edgar, was born in Pulley’s Mill on May 15, 1883 to Isaac Lunsford Meneese and Susan Elmira Meneese. When the 1900 federal census was taken, the family was living in Southern Township in Williamson County on a farm that they owned free of mortgage. Isaac 50 and Susan 47 had two sons living in the home, Edgar 17 and Floyd aged 7.

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Hendrickson, Willis H., 1875-1956, Spanish American War Vet & Commissioner

Willis H. Hendrickson was born in Marion, Illinois to Hartwell Hendrickson and Nannie Allen on October 9, 1874. His family came from two pioneering families. His father, Hartwell, was an early mercantile businessman and livestock dealer, served as circuit clerk in 1884 and was a veteran of the Civil War serving in Co. E of the 60th Illinois Infantry and was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic veterans’ group. His mother, Nannie Allen, was noted to be the first baby girl born in Marion and was the daughter of Willis Allen. He was elected to the Illinois legislature in 1837, served as state senator in 1847 and was a congressman in 1850 and 1952, later serving as Williamson County State’s Attorney and also as a circuit judge up to his death.

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