Administrative/Biographical History
The Bonus Grange was organized on September 27, 1910 by Robert L. Eaton of Elwood with Eugene Frey as Master. Twenty-three people signed an agreement to form the Grange in Bonus Township. The Grange met in the homes of the members until 1917 when they voted to build a meeting hall. The first meeting in the new building was held on December 21, 1917. In 1918, the Grange installed a furnace and carbide lights and built a horse barn to shelter the horses during meetings.
The Ladies Social Hour Club (Bonus Woman’s Club) and the Jolly Workers group raised money to purchase curtains, silverware, dishes, sink, and piano for the hall. They also helped raised money to pay the interest on the loan and to help pay off the mortgage.
The Grange raised money by having card parties, serving food at farm sales, having annual turkey dinners, serving chicken dinners, having bazaar consisting of homemade articles, selling broody hens and dozens of eggs, and buying coal by the carload and grease by the bulk to resell them.
Community service was an important part of the Grange. The members bought a chair lift and a wheel chair for 2 young disabled people in Belvidere, worked the Boone County Fair, gave cash donations to the Special Education Program for hearing impaired children of Boone County, made stuffed toys for the Singer Health Center for Christmas gifts for the children, helped clean Larson’s Cemetery, and cooked breakfast for the Relay for Life walkers.
By the end of 2001 the Grange was unable to fill the chair position and had not been able to conduct a meeting in full forum for a long time so they voted to disband the Grange at the November 16th meeting. The money left in the treasury was donated to the Boone County Council on Aging (Keenage Center), the Boone County Historical Society, and to the Boone County Fair Board.
