Marion is a city in Grant County, Indiana, United States. The population was 29,948 as of the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of Grant County. It is named for Francis Marion, a Brigadier General from South Carolina in the American Revolutionary War.The city is the home of Indiana Wesleyan University, the largest evangelical Christian university in the Midwest and largest private university in Indiana—if including online and regional campuses in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and Illinois. The traditional campus enrolls approximately 2800 students. Since 2016, Jess Alumbaugh has been Marion's mayor. Marion is also noted for being the birthplace of actor James Dean, and cartoonist Jim Davis, though James Dean and Jim Davis were raised in nearby Fairmount. It was also the location of the wedding of actress Julia Roberts and singer Lyle Lovett in 1993. The city is also the site of the infamous lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith.