Bond County Museum

09/02/2026

Help First Baptist Church of Mulberry Grove celebrate their milestone this October!

Come join us for our 125th Anniversary Celebration. October 17th and 18th.

09/01/2026

Check out the latest issue of the Bond County Genealogical Society NEWS! Visit www.bondcogen.org and download B.C.G.S. News Volume 41 Issue 2 Summer July 2026 in PDF format (inside a compressed .zip archive).

The BCGS News welcomes YOUR articles! 📜🖊 We'd love to read and consider submissions from many members & friends. Send your contributions (a story - family research or local history, photo, letter, or research query) to the editor at [email protected] or bring them to a joint Historical/Genealogical Societies meeting. To be included in upcoming issues, your submissions are needed by the end of June for Summer or end of December for Winter, thanks.

08/31/2026

This marks the start of yet another heat advisory in our area, so stay hydrated! Perhaps grab a drink from our , a white porcelain enamelware pail (often called graniteware) with a matching red-handled dippers/ladles resting inside. This one is on display at the Bond County One Room Schoolhouse.

Before the advent of modern indoor plumbing, electricity, or water fountains, providing drinking water for a classroom required a shared, community effort. Each morning, older students were assigned the daily chore of walking to a nearby well, spring, or pump to fetch fresh water in a large bucket. The bucket was typically placed near the entrance or cloakroom. Thirsty children would take turns using a single, long-handled ladle to scoop and drink directly from the bucket. Over time, as understanding of germs, typhoid, and tuberculosis advanced, public health laws banned the communal "common cup". Schoolhouses transitioned to using large ceramic crocks with spigots, and students brought their own collapsible tin cups from home.

One Room School Museum is open by appointment only, plus special events. Contact Bond County Historical Society to schedule a group tour! Bond County Museum in Greenville, Illinois is open Saturdays 10am-noon year round. Also open Sundays 1pm-3pm June, July, August. And by special appointment/tour.

08/31/2026

Bond County Genealogical Society & Bond County Historical Society met August 14, 2000 at Bethel Presbyterian Church in Reno for their very first Rural Church History Program. Presenters included Kevin Kaegy, Fred Baumberger. A letter of childhood memories was read from Mrs. Florence Higgins Isaacs.
https://youtu.be/2tjirCMn6o0?si=i-aeadmYIb136_qC

Two (2) video clips were shown within the program itself, but as of August 2026 when this program was digitized from VHS, they could not be located. If you are holding a copy, especially the original 1991 footage, of "History of Reno: Cemetery, Church, Town," please contact us (and please let us borrow it from you!!). Thanks!

🎥 Visit our website to watch more Bond County Remembered: Video Legacies https://www.bondcountyhistorical.org/videolegacies.html

Bond County Genealogical Society & Bond County Historical Society m...

08/29/2026

This is the last weekend for museum hours both Saturday AND Sunday! Check out our Carson Donnell paintings, woodblock prints, and sketches; Bond & Globe Theatres; Kiwanis Club and Masonic Lodges exhibits; and Civil War Room!!

Visit us 10-noon Sat or 1-3 Sun. In September we return to our Saturdays only schedule. You can also leave us a voicemail or email to schedule a guided group tour outside of posted hours.

08/26/2026

For just $1.50 in 1976 you could take a tour of 6 architecturally significant and absolutely beautiful homes in the city of Greenville!

08/23/2026

The Rendezvous at the Fort is getting so close!!! Mark that calendar!!

08/21/2026

Since we did not have our usual rural church visit this August, the BCHS and BCGS will have a business meeting next week. So that all of our officers can attend, next week's meeting will be on Thursday, August 27. We will meet at the Bond County Museum at our regular time, 7:00 pm. The agenda and last month's minutes were sent out by email. We hope to see you there!

08/17/2026

This Legion Honor Guard group photograph is from a collection of organization and business photos, newspaper clippings, and company newsletters donated by Sue Mollett in 2023.

From the caption of the reprinted photo in the Greenville Advocate February 10, 1949: “Guard of Honor of Greenville Post No. 282, American Legion are shown in their new dress uniforms, which were manufactured at the plant of DeMoulin Bros. & Co., in this city. Members of this group provide the pall bearers, firing squad, color guards, and color bearers for military funerals and other military occasions.”

The American Legion was chartered by Congress in 1919 as a patriotic veterans organization. Focusing on service to veterans, servicemembers and communities, the Legion evolved from a group of war-weary veterans of World War I into one of the most influential nonprofit groups in the United States.

DeMoulin Brothers was founded in 1892 by one of three brothers, all of whom eventually joined the company. The company has a diverse history, manufacturing all types of sewn products for music performance groups and other uniform related industries. The company also made military uniforms in World War I & II, as well as, graduation caps and gowns until the early 1980s. Visit the DeMoulin Museum in Greenville Saturdays 10a-2p ;-)

Bond County Museum in Greenville, Illinois is open Saturdays 10am-noon year round. Also open Sundays 1pm-3pm June, July, August. And by special appointment/tour. One Room School Museum is open by appointment only, plus special events. Contact Bond County Historical Society to schedule a group tour!

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