Mr. Jim Elliott, was the founder of the Illinois Chapter of Po.L.K. of A.

Our polka club is the "Illinois Chapter Po.L.K. of A.(Polka Lovers Klub of America)
Minnesota is our Parent Klub and there are ten chapters in the United States. The Chapters are:
ARIZONA
COLORADO
ILLINOIS
KANSAS
NEBRASKA
NORTH DAKOTA
TEXAS 1
TEXAS 11
WISCONSIN
WYOMING

THE POLKA DANCE
The name, "polka-pilka," was given in 1830 to a Bohemian dance, invented by a Bohemian girl. It is a vigorous dance in 2/4 time.
The word, "polka," therefore, has nothing to do with Poland or Polish, where the dance was totally unknown, while it already was being introduced to Western Europe and even in the U.S.A.
The dance, "polka," originated in a simple farm country and from there (Bohemia) was brought into noble circles, took off like wild fire and captured Berlin, Vienna, Paris, London and gradually the whole world. The dance's tiny steps fascinated all classes of the educated as well as the uneducated public, even in St. Petersburg (recently known as Leningrad) in Russia.
The fascination of 160 years ago can be measured by the fact that the dancing master of Paris, Perror, charged five pounds sterling for a lesson in polka-dance. The polka made him one of the most famous dancing instructors of his time.
Great Britain, too, was caught up in polka fever in this time period. A British manual advised carrying needle and thread to fix the rips in clothing inevitably caused by the wild dancing; it also counseled men to "stop when you hear your partner sobbing painfully or when you observe her gown to be coming off." Depending on their social station, people found in it an affirmation of the human spirit.
As it usually happens, the originator of the "immortal" dance-polka, fell into oblivion during the greatest acceptance of the dance. The originator, a girl named Anicka Chadimova, entered an unhappy marriage union and worked in the fields as a farm hand to support her family. She died in 1881, registered in the coroner's book as "pauper."
It is interesting also that the destiny of the discoverer of Anicka, the country composer-teacher Josef Neruda, who first wrote down the tune of the dance, was just as unhappy and strange. During the night of April 6, 1876, he was found in his home in Vodolovic (Bohemia), murdered.
A solid proof that the polka is of Bohemian origin is that not a single one of the Polish musical masters (not even Chopin) or anyone since then used the polka in their compositions. The majority of Czech composers, however, since more than 100 years ago, used the polka as a Bohemian element for their musical works.
In May, 1844, the dance arrived in the U.S. where as everywhere else it was first performed on stage, at the National Theater. Polka mania was as furious here as abroad. Soon after, the polka spread all over the world, to Mexico and Sough America where it became the national dance of Paraguay. The dance historian, Alber Zorn, has written, "the whole world wrote and talked about it and apparently thought little of anything else."
In the decades since, polka music has waned somewhat as new generations of people and music have evolved. But it shall always continue to reign supreme to young and old alike who seek fun and the fellowship that only this joyous music can provide.