It is named for Francis Marion, a brigadier general from South Carolina in the American Revolutionary War.

Marion is the birthplace of actor James Dean and cartoonist Jim Davis, and was the location of the wedding of actress Julia Roberts and singer Lyle Lovett in 1993.

The Battle of the Mississinewa was fought in December 1812, north of the current city of Marion, as an expeditionary force sent by William Henry Harrison against the Miami villages.

[6] When Martin Boots and David Branson each donated 30 acres (120,000 m2) of land in 1831 for the site of Marion, they chose a location on the left bank of the swift, scenic river which the Miami Indians had named "Mississinewa," meaning "Falling water."

So rapid had been the tide of settlement that it followed by only 19 years the Battle of Mississinewa, 7 miles (11 km) downstream, where federal troops and Indians had fought a bloody, pre-dawn encounter in 1812.

Marion grew slowly for more than 50 years as an agricultural trading center supported by a sprinkling of small farm- and forest-related industries.

Native Americans were a common sight as they traveled there from Indiana's last reservation, with its Indian school, Baptist Church, and cemetery, 8 miles (13 km) away.

[7] Gas City and Matthews were carved out of raw farmland and launched as speculative boom towns, each absorbing existing tiny villages.

As late as the 1940s, Matthews resembled a Western ghost town, before it attracted eleven glass factories and drew the professional baseball team away from Indianapolis.

On July 23, 1888, with increasing number of residents at the six HDVS, Congress established a seventh home in Grant County (and ultimately three more).

Congress allotted an appropriation of $200,000 for construction, while Grant County residents provided a natural gas supply for heating and lighting.

Marion was selected as a site for the new branch due to the availability of natural gas and the political support of Colonel George Washington Steele, US Congressman serving from 1880 to 1890.

In the early 21st century, the original treatment hospital, built in 1889, the greenhouse, and cadet quarters are scheduled for demolition.

In 1988 he founded America’s Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee to preserve the history of African Americans who had faced the terror and violence of lynching.

The event in Marion was notable as the last confirmed lynching of African Americans in Indiana and the Northern United States.

It is located at the intersection of 38th Street and Lincoln Boulevard, approximately 2+1⁄2 miles southeast of the center of Marion.

In 1981, a Determination of Eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places for Federal Properties was made under Criteria A and C. As a result, since 1981, various projects have been reviewed by the Indiana State Preservation Office for compliance under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended.

[10] The eight-time state basketball champions, Marion Giants, play in the 7,500 seat Bill Green Athletic Arena.

The city operates a 2.75-mile (4.43 km) Riverwalk from downtown to Matter Park, and there is a newly renovated $9,000,000 YMCA Memorial Coliseum to honor war veterans.

A publicly owned mansion, the Hostess House, is used for social functions, and Marion General Hospital has been nationally accredited for approximately a half-century.

The area surrounding Marion is part of the Corn Belt; as such, agriculture remains a significant component of the region's economy.

[18] Other Marion plant closures in the past few decades include those of Ball-Foster, SCM (later Ampad) Paper Company, and the Malleable Iron Works (both on the far west side along Miller Avenue).

TriEnda Plastics LLC selection of Marion in 2008 was one of the top 5 Manufacturing Projects in Indiana and received the coveted Silver Shovel award from Area Development Magazine.

[21] In 1991, Mayor Ron Mowery, Mark Erlewine, and a group of interested citizens decided to make Marion live up to its name.