Royal Neighbors of America

Royal Neighbors of America, the largest fraternal life insurance society administered by women, is headquartered in Rock Island, Illinois. It was founded as a social order on December 5, 1888, in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Royal Neighbors of America was chartered in Illinois as a fraternal benefit society on March 21, 1895. The first local or suburban camp, designated as Camp No. 1, was instituted in Council Bluffs on July 3, 1890, and is still in existence.

Bradley Royal Neighbors of America Pansy Camp No. 1129 was founded on September 7, 1898, and is an active camp. There were 21 charter members. Edward Wright, Pauline Wynne, Anna S. Gustafson, Mary E. Wright, Cecelia Book, Jesse E. Schumaker, Elsie Pearson, Jennie H. Gailbraith, Sylvia L. Miller, Ida Hirt, Letta A. Orr, Fannie Miller, W. R. Miller, C. T. Morel, Ed Schumaker, Andrew Pearson, B. F. On, Gussie E. DeLong, Johanna Moran, Theresia Gillen, and Annie Gillen.

Several generations of families included in this Bradley organization are Hayes, Hubert–Rittmanic, Yakofish-Sebastiani, Ott-Vaughn, Falkenham, Lambert, Haack, Anderson, Mann–Coash, Walters-Mulligan, Gonderman, Grill, Heinze, Knickerboker, Benoit, Nemitz, Reilly, LaMontagne, Lenfert, Altmeyer, Tannehill, Atkins, and many more.

Gen Lenfert retired as recorder in December 1989 after 44 years of dedicated service.

For a period of time, the women wore white dresses to their biweekly meetings and white formals to the annual Kankakee County conventions. These conventions are rotated each year to different camps within the county. The first Kankakee County Convention was held in Kankakee in 1921. Former meeting places in Bradley were Woodmen Hall (NE corner of Grand Ave & Broadway), I.O.O.F Hall (upstairs, SW corner of Wabash & Broadway). In 1992, the meetings were held at the Bradley American Legion.