How We Started


  • An informal talk session following the annual meeting of Monroe’s Lyceum and chautauqua bureau directors on March 8, 1921, sparked the first interest in organizing a Kiwanis Club in Monroe.
  • After the March meeting, School Superintendent Lester R. Creutz, Arthur C. Frautschy and Rev. A.A. King became actively interested in the Kiwanis idea. A Kiwanis state organizer was invited to an April 19, 1921, meeting and addressed 50 business and professional leaders in the Circuit Courtroom. Thirty of those attending signed a future Kiwanians.
  • The temporary organizing session was held April 25 at the Citizens Bank. Permanent organization was achieved May 3. Forty seven of the original 51 members attended the first luncheon program May 12, 1921 at Ruf’s Garden.
  • The club’s first project saw members placing 100 “Monroe” signs on roads leading to the city. Harold Tuttle won the first attendance prize—500 pounds of “Ziegler coal.”
  • The club received its charter July 15, 1921 at the Lincoln School Gym with guests from Beloit, Freeport, Rockford, Janesville, Kenosha, and Madison clubs.
  • Thus the Kiwanis club of Monroe received its official baptism and nine and one half decades of service to our community had been initiated.