John Weston Livery was located at 607 N. Market Street. The family of John and Lula Weston lived the next door to the north at 609 N. Market St.
John Weston was born April 15, 1874 in Browning, Franklin County, Illinois to Hiram and Laura Weston and had five brothers and sisters. He took up the occupation of liveryman early on as the 1900 census reveals. In the census of that year he was 26, single and living in a boarding house in Johnston City, Illinois.
The same year, he married Lula Hall and they moved to Marion and located on N. Market St. opening Weston Livery and Feed Stable.
By the 1910 census, they had two children, Ralph Weston born in 1901 and Maude Weston born in 1903. They were still actively running the livery next to their home.
Before 1920, the advent of the automobile was spelling the demise of the livery business so they sold their livery business and property on N. Market Street to George Windland who had previously been operating a livery and feed stable at 110 S. Market St.
In the 1922 Marion City Directory, the Windland Livery is the last remaining livery in Marion, Illinois. By the 1927 directory, George had changed the livery to be accessible from N. Monroe Street only at the back of the property so the address changed to 608 N. Monroe St. It was still listed in the 1928-29 directories at the Monroe address but likely only shortly existed as a feed store after this period.
When John Weston left Marion, he moved his family to Herrin and became a butcher for a period then moved to Carterville, Illinois where he died April 6, 1936. He is buried in Hill Crest Cemetery in Carterville. Ralph Weston and Maude Weston where their only children.
Sam’s Notes: The following is an excerpt from a Homer Butler article, “One of the Sullins garage employees who worked on the west side of N. Market St. was the late Hosea Cagle who later built a garage building across North Market Street on the east side that extended all the way east to North Madison Street before it was hit by fire in the 1920s while it was occupied by Hayton Motor Sales. Depth of the Cagle garage building was lessened somewhat when it was rebuilt.
Alongside the Cagle garage, on the north side, there remained a dwelling occupied by the Weston family which operated a livery stable that had its entrance on Madison Street where it and the garage represented the end of one era and the beginning of another.”
(Data and photo from 1905 Souvenir History, WCHS; Glances at Life by Homer Butler; Marion City Directories, Federal Census Records; compiled by Sam Lattuca on 04/09/2013)