Category Archives: All Marion Content

All content related to Marion Illinois

1950, Roland Theater Sale Stirs Memories

Posted on by January 3, 2014

Sale of Roland Building Stirs Memories of Theater’s Heyday

The news that the Roland Theater building had been sold recently stirred a lot of memories in the minds of the older Marion citizens, for that was the place the fellows took their girls and where pa took ma and ma took the kids.

C.F. Roland built the theater and named it for himself in 1906. Activities, however, really started one day when a man, his wife and small son came to town to play an engagement in the old Opera House. Continue reading →

1924, The Miracle of Turning Water Into Wine

Posted on by January 2, 2014

Used Pump To Get Wine Out of the Ground

The amount of wine necessary for the proper rearing of an Italian baby reached alarming proportions Wednesday afternoon when Mrs. Mary Mentala of 406 West Goodall Street told city officials all the wine she had was for her baby, and the officer found 150 gallons.

Mayor J.H. Clarida, Chief of Police H.T. Boyd and Officers Elmer Smith and John Smothers conducted the raid. Continue reading →

1924, Troops Called in “Coal Belt Booze War”

Posted on by February 20, 2014

On January 8th, 1924, Williamson County Sheriff George Galligan requested of then Governor Len Small to send in the Illinois Nation Guard troops to ensure order. Galligan stated that the raids performed by S. Glenn Young and his Ku Klux Klan counterparts had assumed the proportions of mob violence and was afraid the raiders’ actions would create another mob. Young had recently been raiding personal homes and businesses and was said to be beating up people and officials and stealing money and property. Continue reading →