Kansas genealogy history ancestors

Marion County

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How're y'all doin'?  I'm sure glad you've stopped by!  Welcome to the Marion County KSGenWeb pages!  My name is Rebecca Maloney and I'm the county coordinator for Marion County.  Thank you to previous Marion County Coordinators that have done so much work!  I hope to add to your efforts with new volunteers!  We need genealogy information, family histories and more!  Email me to include your ancestors on these pages!
As always, make yourselves at home, browse around, see if there is anything that may help you in your search for your Marion County ancestors.  I would also like to ask of you, if you have anything that pertains to Marion County, (i.e., census records, tombstone transcriptions, cemetery records, marriage records, obituaries, etc) that may be of assistance to others.  Do you have books or other reference materiel pertaining to Marion County?  Would you like to be a Lookup Volunteer?  Please give me a holler, I'll be more than happy to help you in anyway that I can!  Enjoy your visit!   If you have any comments or suggestions, please let me know!
Most importantly.... Good Luck!
-Rebecca

 

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Marion County Was Established

Marion County was founded August 30, 1855. Its county seat is Marion and its most populous city is Hillsboro. As of the 2010 census, the county population was 12,660. The county was named in honor of Francis Marion, a Brigadier General of the American Revolutionary War, known as the "Swamp Fox".

Marion County was organized on July 6, 1865, by George Griffith; William H. Billins; William P. Shreve; Reuben Riggs; A. E. Case; and A. A. More. The county was named for General Francis Marion, Revolutionary War hero, and contains the cities of Peabody, Tampa, Lincolnville, Ramona, Durham, Florence, Hillsboro, Lehigh, Lost Springs, Marion, Burns and Goessel. Although based in fact, many stories of legendary proportions surround the area of land one section wide and eighteen sections long along the east boundary of the county. A murder had been committed in the area and Marion County did not want to have the trial so they gave those sections to Chase County to make certain the murder had occurred in that county.

The immigration of Mennonites from Russia in 1874 and their purchase of vast acreages of government and railroad land; and the large purchases of land by William Scully, of Illinois, between 1870 and 1885 and his introduction of the Scully land system, which included tenant farming and drain tiling the fields, both helped the early settlement and development of the county. The Scully estate still owned 53,491 acres in as late as 1942.

The Marion Methodist Church was organized in 1869. The Presbyterians at Marion had the first church building constructed in 1871, and is still being used. The first county fair was held October 13, 1875, at Peabody. The present fair board and system began in 1931 and conducts an annual fair in Hillsboro. The first school district, Number 1, was organized in 1865 for the entire county and also included everything west to Colorado and south to present Oklahoma.

Jim Lehrer (of the MacNeil-Lehrer "Report") wrote We Were Dreamers, based on Marion. Esther Vogts' several children books are about the county and the Hillsboro area. Ed Burkholder's The Story of Charley Faust, is about Faust who played for the New York Giants baseball team.

Interesting sites in the county include the The Marion County Courthouse, the The Elgin House, the Harvey House (the first one), and the Adobe House.

I hope you find my efforts helpful in your research of Marion County roots. I am unable to do additional research on your family as I live in Colorado and do not have direct access to records. I post everything I have for all to use.

Research Resources

Make sure you check the "Research Resources" section! There are  helpful links, look up volunteers and local researchers to help you out.

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MARION COUNTY KS FAMILY HISTORY BICHET SCHOOL

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Surrounding Counties

SALINE COUNTY

DICKINSON COUNTY

MORRIS COUNTY

MCPHERSON COUNTY

MARION COUNTY

CHASE COUNTY

HARVEY COUNTY

BUTLER COUNTY

"The Chosen"

We are the chosen. In each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again. To tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve. Doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the story tellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called, as it were, by our genes. Those who have gone before cry out to us: Tell our story. So, we do. In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood before now and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the ancestors, "You have a wonderful family; you would be proud of us.". How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me? I cannot say. It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who I am, and why I do the things I do. It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference and saying - I can't let this happen. The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish. How they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. It goes to deep pride that the fathers fought and some died to make and keep us a nation. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth, without them we could not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are they and they are the sum of who we are. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take my place in the long line of family storytellers. That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and restore the memory or greet those who we had never known before."

by Della M. Cummings Wright; Rewritten by her granddaughter Dell Jo Ann McGinnis Johnson; Edited and Reworded by Tom Dunn, 1943."

 

 MARION COUNTY'S FAMILIES

Marion County KS family history

BOWN-CORBY SCHOOL

Marion County KS family trees

 

Marion County KS genealogy

 

Marion County KS Family Trees

PEABODY FAMILY HISTORY

 


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Contact Us

If you have questions, contributions, or problems with this site, email:

Coordinator - Rebecca Maloney

State Coordinator: Tom & Carolyn Ward

Asst. State Coordinators: Vacant

Questions or Comments?

If you have questions or problems with this site, email the County Coordinator. Please to not ask for specfic research on your family. I am unable to do your personal research. I do not live in Kansas and do not have access to additional records.

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