Steven Schmidt, Bona Thompson Memorial Center
In 1890, Edward Thompson, a well-to-do banker, moved his wife and surviving daughter, Bona Thompson, from Edinburgh, Indiana to a large house in the Indianapolis suburb of Irvington so that she could attend Butler’s preparatory school before attending Butler College in Irvington. Bona majored in English and graduated from Butler in 1897 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. While she was in college, Bona made friends easily and joined the Kappa Gamma Sorority where she “…was known for her brightness and cheerfulness.” On senior class day, she played Matilda O’Fipp, the colonel’s daughter in a “clever little comedy,” by W. S. Gilbert, of Gilbert & Sullivan fame.
Following graduation, Bona briefly studied at Wellesley College, but had to leave graduate work because of ill health. In June 1899, Bona and her mother joined a party of friends who were going to spend the summer traveling in Europe. The group sailed from New York on the 30th of June aboard the SS Fürst Bismarck. Their tour, conducted by Mrs. M. Adelia Crosley of Indianapolis, took them to London, and Windsor before going touring Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Austria. The tour ended in France with a stop in Paris, where Bona started to feel slightly ill. The feeling lasted through their boat trip home, but she wasn’t so ill that she and her mother didn’t enjoy a shopping trip in New York City before boarding the final train for the trip back to Indianapolis.
Bona was “slightly ill” when they reached home in early September and was quickly diagnosed as having typhoid fever. Her condition rapidly worsened and on October 12, 1899, she died and was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery. Following Bona’s death, Mary Thompson took up a “Crazy Quilt” that she had started a few years earlier, with Bona’s help, and started to expand it. Before her own death, Mary Thompson was able to finish this oversize quilt using scraps and pieces created by her daughter, now on display at the Bona Thompson Center in Irvington.
Devastated by the death of their last surviving child, Bona’s parents donated $40,000 and a small plot of land directly opposite their home, at the intersection of Downey and University Avenues, to Butler for the construction of a library building in her memory. Edward and Mary Thompson were able to watch the construction of the Bona Thompson Memorial Library as it was erected, but tragically, neither survived to see the library’s dedication in December 1903.
The Irvington Historical Society is proud to present a new exhibit built around the Thompson family and that beautiful quilt. The exhibit, The Thompson Family: Memories in a Quilt will open on Saturday, December 3, 2022, and run until March 26, 2023.
The Bona Thompson Memorial Center, the home of the Irvington Historical Society, is located at 5350 East University Avenue, Indianapolis, IN 46219. Our hours are Saturdays & Sundays from 1 – 4 pm. Admission is free.
