Polo Illinois Historical Society

Polo Illinois Historical Society The Polo Illinois Historical Society is dedicated to the preservation of local history.

The Polo Illinois Historical Society is dedicated to the preservation of the Polo & Surrounding areas historical items. We research & share information about the pioneers and early settlers of the area.

The Polo Historical Society will be OPENSaturday, May 30th, 8:30 am - 3:00 pm. Please stop in and wander around, do a li...
05/28/2026

The Polo Historical Society will be OPEN
Saturday, May 30th, 8:30 am - 3:00 pm. Please stop in and wander around, do a little research or just say HI.

113 N Franklin Ave. Polo, Illinois
[email protected]

Polo History Betty ObendorfMay 27, 2026Planting FlowersIt was nice to get over to the greenhouse at the high school to s...
05/28/2026

Polo History
Betty Obendorf

May 27, 2026

Planting Flowers

It was nice to get over to the greenhouse at the high school to see what plants the students had selected for this year. I was there on the day they opened but there happened to be too many people for me. I just went to the Polo Women’s Garden group for two phlox plants.
Shortly after we moved to town, I got a Starfire phlox plant at one of their sales and it has been beautiful all these years. Then this winter my original clump died and it needed to be replaced. A couple of smaller ones had started nearby but they will need to grow.
When I moved here Bob and Thelma Jones already had lots of flowers and by the time I added my grandmother’s iris and her black-eyed Susan clumps it would seem I have plenty. I worked with my grandmother in her flower beds and have many memories of those days.
I need to check Henry School to see how flower beds look there since we have had lots of rain. Someone handles our beds at Aplington House and they look good. The fence at Aplington House is in bad shape and needs to be redone. When Paul put that fence in it was made of Cyprus wood and he said, “It will last 100 years.” I do not think it has been that many years and it needs attention.
The weather has also been chilly to be out planting and we seem to be having some late frost. My apple trees did not get a chance to bloom this year, and they have always been so very beautiful. So, I try not to be in a hurry.
Our next program for the Polo Historical Society will be June 3rd, and it will be a travelogue of Portugal, Gibraltar, Barcelona, Athens, France, Italy, and Greece. The program will start at seven and we will also show you the 1906 wedding dress of Fannie Schryver. We have hardly touched it ourselves so I am interested in seeing the whole dress out of the box.
I have finished the script for our “A Walking Tour of Zenas Aplington’s Neighborhood” for June 20th. The tours will be 1:00 – 2:00 – and 3:00 with Beth as your tour guide. We hope Caroline Aplington will be available to say hello and show off some of her outfits. I wonder what she wore when she helped break open some of the whiskey kegs in the “Polo Whiskey Raid of 1856”. She may not want to tell that story. Her buddy in the raid was Maria Waterbury along with 20 some others all wearing their hats as they marched along Polo.
There were threats that they would be arrested but who was going to arrest 30 Polo women when most in the town were against the sale of intoxicating beverages. So, the young women marched home singing as they went and the story was written in Polo history books for all of us to read in later years.

[email protected]

Join us Wednesday, June 3, for a special travelogue presentation by Krista Lichtenheld as she shares stories and photos ...
05/26/2026

Join us Wednesday, June 3, for a special travelogue presentation by Krista Lichtenheld as she shares stories and photos from her recent travels to Portugal, Gibraltar, Barcelona, Athens, France, Italy, and Turkey.

The evening will also include the unveiling of one of the museum’s newest acquisitions — the beautiful wedding dress of Fannie Getzendaner who married Martin Schryver. in 1906.

📍 At the museum, 113 N. Franklin
🕡 Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
🕖 Program begins at 7:00 p.m.

The public is always welcome! Admission is free, with donations gratefully accepted.

Bring your family, friends and neighbors and, in the spirit of Marco Polo, come explore the world with us!

This Program will be streamed on Facebook LIVE on the Polo Illinois Historical Society Page.

[email protected]

05/25/2026

2026 Memorial Day Ceremony at Fairmount cemetery Polo, Illinois

05/25/2026

Memorial day Parade entering Fairmount cemetery.

05/25/2026

Polo Illinois Memorial Day Parade 2026

From the Scrapbook of Milbrey Mulnix Written during World War IIWhat can you say to a man whose son is missing in action...
05/25/2026

From the Scrapbook of Milbrey Mulnix
Written during World War II

What can you say to a man whose son is missing in action?

How can you tell him that your heart goes out to him in his time of trouble and that your hopes and prayers are with him?

What words can be said to express how deeply you feel his concern about his boy?

At such a time, all remarks seem trite and shallow – and so inadequate.
You may think you can give him comfort by telling him that 60% of the missing are said to be prisoners of war; that the odds that his son is safe are good.

He will have thought of that a hundred times. You can tell him that there are thousands of families, just like his, that are tortured with the uncertainty, - the pendulum of hope and despair.

He knows that, but it makes it no easier for him. Oh, there are a dozen things that you can say to him – a score of phrases that have been repeated time and war again.
But what can you say, what can you do, yes – just what can you do to bring Jack and Russ and the others home again?


Here is a List of Polo's servicemen & women who left the safety of their hometown and paid the Ultimate Sacrifice to defend our country.

WWI

PVT Fegan, Patrick ~ US Army

WWII

PVT Antrim, Robert Bruce ~ US Army Air Corps
PFC Beightol, Carl M. ~ US Army
PVT Bellows, Robert L. ~ US Army
F2C Bennett, Chester A. ~ Sr. US Navy
2LT Bothe, John H. ~ US Army Air Corps
SSGT Byrd, Melvin C. ~ US Army Air Corps
PFC Ditsworth, LaVerne E. ~ US Army
Radio Tech Folk, Robert E. ~ BCT Corps
SSGT Garman, Wayne C. ~ US Army Air Corps
2LT Jeanblanc, Charles K. ~ US Army Air Corps
PFC Keefer, Paul R. ~ US Army
PFC Kline, John Leavitt ~ US Army
SEAMAN Knudson, Milton ~ US Navy
MM1C Lang, Clyde Nelson ~ US Army
PFC Lang, Russell S. ~ US Army
PFC Link, Leonard L. ~ US Army
TSGT Naylon, John E. ~ US Army Air Corps
S1C Powell, Goldie Mae ~ US Navy Reserve
PVT Rebuck, Earl D. ~ US Army
S2C Rhodes, Henry R. Jr. ~ US Navy Reserve
PVT Roderick, Oliver Jr. ~ US Army
PFC Rucker, Leon F. ~ US Army
LTJG Savage, John Joseph "Jack" ~ US Navy Reserve

KOREA

PFC Bender, Earl ~ US Army
1LT Eddy, William Delbert ~ US Army/US Air Force
PFC Mon, Arnold L. ~ US Army

VIETNAM

LCPL Bender, Larry Warren ~ US Marine Corps
SP4 Hazlip, Charles E. ~ US Army
SP4 Mackey, Larry ~ US Army

AFGHANISTAN

SSGT Bartelt, Justus S. ~ US Marine Corps

If we have left anyone off or given incorrect information, please kindly let Kevin know with an email.
[email protected]

Polo History Betty Obendorf May 20, 2026Getting Ready For Town and Country Days Polo Historical Society got a call abou...
05/24/2026

Polo History
Betty Obendorf

May 20, 2026

Getting Ready For Town and Country Days


Polo Historical Society got a call about our plans for Town and Country Days and while we had talked about this, it was many months ago. So Beth, Linda, and I quickly put our heads together to discuss what we had done in the past and what we would like to do in the future. We have had numerous trolley tours out and about to see several historic spots and the last was out to the cemetery to point out grave sites of conductors of the Underground Railroad. What would we want to do this year?

Have we ever tried a walking tour and the answer was, yes. But that was years ago with Joan Raley and a group from Chicago called the Pleasant Valley group. Not many from Polo took part in it. What could we put together and how much walking would we have people do?

We could start out with the Judge Campbell Law Office and move to the Polo Opera House. Linda had recently found out some neat things about the old opera house that people might find interesting. Of course we would move on next door to the Aplington House and maybe Caroline Aplington would show us some of her newer outfits.

Then we will stroll across the street to the home of Dr. Burns and find out what little tidbit that we had forgotten about as we refresh our memory. Our next stop would be the Lutheran Church and we will talk about past history of the church. All of those places we will not go in until we come to the last stop.

That last stop will be the Presbyterian Church and here we will enter the church to see what is going on with the church now. We will all be delighted to find out about this from the present owner.

Then we had to come up with a name for the tour and after we had tossed around several ideas, it suddenly came to us. It would be, “A Walking Tour of Zenas Aplington’s Neighborhood.”

This will take place on Saturday afternoon on June 20th and the times will be 1:00 – 2:00 – 3:00. So get your walking shoes ordered and have an umbrella on hand for something a little different. Beth will be your tour guide and I am putting together the vignettes of each historic place. I am finding little points of interest that maybe you did not know.

Beth recently went over to West Carroll School District to my granddaughter Natalie’s 5th grade classroom to talk about the Underground Railroad that went through Carroll and Ogle County. Before she left one student asked her, “Is this still going on?” How would you have answered that student?

GOLD STAR Son of Polo,12/9/1916 3/12/1944Private First-Class John Leavitt KlineAmerical DIV, 132nd INF REG, US ArmyTri-C...
05/22/2026

GOLD STAR Son of Polo,
12/9/1916 3/12/1944

Private First-Class John Leavitt Kline
Americal DIV, 132nd INF REG, US Army

Tri-County Press: Thursday, April 6th, 1944

ANOTHER POLO BOY MISSING

PFC John Kline Missing on Bougainville Is.
Pfc John Kline, CO A 132 Inf. In the hottest action spots in the Southwest Pacific for the last two years, has been missing on Bougainville Island since March 12, according to a telegram received Tuesday by his mother, Mrs. John Kline Sr. from the war department.
Bougainville has been the scene of attacks by the Japanese marooned there by the American soldiers for the past few months. CO A of the 132nd Inf was in the forefront of the battle for the island.
Kline was graduated from Polo Community High School with the class of ’35. While in high school he was a tower of strength in the line on the Marco football eleven where he played guard. He enlisted in the Army before Pearl Harbor and was sent with his unit to Australia in the early days of the war when the Japanese were threatening to engulf all of that part of the world. Mrs. Kline received a letter from her son dated, March 8, a few days before he was reported missing.

Tri County Press: Thursday, May 4, 1944

JOHN KLINE KIA ON BOUGAINVILLE

John Kline, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Kline of this city was KIA in the hottest land front of the Solomons campaign on Bougainville Island, according to a telegram from the war department received Thursday. His parents were notified last month that he was missing in action on March 12, Subsequent to that time his body was found in the jungles of Bougainville where the fighting was particularly fierce due to the attacks by the Japanese.

Address

113 N Franklin Avenue
Polo, IL
61064

Opening Hours

8:30am - 3pm

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