Hamilton County, Illinois Historical Society

**** Announcing New Publication ****

McLeansboro Illustrated: 1900 & 1910
Special Supplements to The McLeansboro Times

Order Form (.pdf) (428Kb) - Adobe Acrobat

Next Historical Society Meeting

Program:St. James, St. Agnes, and the National
Register: The History and Architecture
of St. James' Episcopal Church
Presenter:  Fred Vallowe
When:Tuesday, June 24, 2008 at 7 pm
Where:St. James' Episcopal Church
109-111 North Pearl Street
McLeansboro, Illinois

Spring 2008 Newsletter

Newsletter (.pdf) - Adobe Acrobat
Newsletter (.doc) (1.4Mb) - Word Document

Hamilton County Museum and Genealogy Library

Location:
    McCoy Memorial Library, 2nd Floor
    118 S. Washington St.  (West Side of Square)
    McLeansboro, IL 62859
    Ph: (618) 643-2125
Hours:
    Monday-Friday: 1-4pm
    1st and 3rd Saturday of the Month: 10am-2pm

Hamilton County Historical Society Publications

  • Goshen Trails: Historical Journal of the Hamilton County Historical Society
  • Grandma Deem's Marriage Notices 1922-1929
  • Grandma Deem's Obituaries 1897-1917
  • Grandma Deem's Obituaries 1917-1925
  • Obituaries of Hamilton County, Illinois 1926-1931
Order Form (.pdf) - Adobe Acrobat
Order Form (.doc) - Word Document
Order Form (.rtf) - Rich Text Format

1978 Oral History Project CDs & Transcripts

Interviews vary in length, therefore, some interviews are on multiple CDs.  If you wish to order an interview, it costs $5 per CD.  While we have CDs for most interviews, we have written transcripts for about a third of the interviews.  It costs $10 per transcript, if available.  There is a flat $3 shipping/handling fee for any order for Oral History Project CDs or transcripts.

1978 Oral History Project Order Form (.pdf) - Adobe Acrobat
1978 Oral History Project Order Form (.doc) - Word Document
1978 Oral History Project Order Form (.rtf) - Rich Text Format

History of the Project

In 1978, the Hamilton County Historical Society obtained a grant of about $12,000 from the federal Comprehensive Employment Training Act to record and transcribe oral history from some of the elderly residents from the community.  Charles Frey and a group of staff members interviewed and recorded more than 100 people about subjects such as the Great Tornado of 1926, old stores, communities, kinfolk and memories of days-gone-by.

2006-2007 Preservation of the Oral History Tapes

After being stored away for almost 30 years, the Historical Society has converted and preserved all 240+ cassettes to CD and have made them generally available to the public for the first time.  This process took almost 3/4 of a year to complete.

Original Oral History Project Staff from 1978

Director:  Charles Frey
Public Relations:  Ken Hodorowski
Interviewers:
    Charles Frey
    Mark Jackson
    Michele Ragsdale
    Keith Karcher
    Sharon Heil
    Dan Allen
    Margaret Frazier
    Rita Steele
    L.C. Gollihur
    Richard Jackson
Secretary/Bookkeeper:  Vicky Capps
Transcriptionists:
    Rebecca Leuellen
    Donna Warren French
Auditor/Editors:
    Chrystie Adams
    Rita Pressy
    Amy Repasky

Links to Other Hamilton County Web Sites

Hamilton County USGenWeb
Yesterdays in Hamilton County, IL
Southern Illinois Photo Exchange
McLeansboro.com