From well before the turn of the century, coal became king in Southern Illinois and reshaped the economies and landscape of many counties, Williamson County among them. Coal mining has always been part and parcel of the lives and livelihoods of most of the citizenry of this county and back in the day if you didn’t work for the coal mines you assuredly knew someone who did. Continue reading
Tag Archives: herrin massacre
Attorney Rufus Neely was one of Williamson County’s best known public men. His activities and his fame influenced the happenings in and out of court in the county. Continue reading
Delos Leon Duty was born October 5, 1882 at Attila, Illinois, the son of Hiram P. and Paradine (Parks) Duty. He was one of eleven children. Continue reading
1922 crowd awaiting Herrin Mine Grand Jury on Public Square, Marion, Illinois
In 1922, a crowd on the public square in Marion, Illinois anxiously awaits the outcome of a Grand Jury to hand down verdicts related to the Herrin Mine massacres which occured earlier in the year. Scab mine workers who had been called in to work the mines during strikes at a mine just outside Herrin, Illinois had been brutally murdered and tortured.
(Photo from the Williamson County Historical Society)