The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-05-14
BIRTH OF K. OF 6.
ITS FOUNDER WAS CONNECTICUT CATHOLIC CLERGYMAN TWO OF WHOSE BROTHERS ARE NOW PRIESTS IN HARTFORD -DIO- CESE.
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 Brief History of K. of c.
 Inasmuch as the state convention O
 the Knights of Columbus is being helt
 in that city and received all his earl
 at this time to recall that the founde1
 of the order, that now reaches al l over the United States, numbering fts
 members by the thousands, was a Wa. terbury man, says the Waterbury Am | er1can. The founder was the Rev Michael J. McGivney, who was borr
 in that icty and received all his early
 education there. He died in Thomas ton but was buried in St. Joseph's Cemetery, Waterbury, where there is a monument to his memory.
 To New Haven belongs the credit ot being the city in which the order was started, but the Catholics of Water
 bury are proud of the fact that the
 man who conceived the idea and brought the Knights of Columbus into being was a Waterburian.
 The Rev. Michael Joseph McGiyney
 was born in Waterbury, August 12,
 1852. He was the eldest Of a family ! of IS children. At the time of his l boyhood there was but one Catholic church in his native town and but two public schools s.
 In the spring of 1859, although he had not reached his 7th year, he had acquired sufficient knowledge of school work to entitle him to place in the third grade.
 After completing his studies he work ed a short time in the spoon depart ment at Holmes, Booth & Haydens. Long before this 1t was known to his parents that he had an ambition to become a priest and in this they en- couraged him. In 1888, accompanied l. kI> DDn ! L. z7~-S> pastor of the Church of the ImmacU- late Conception. and later bishop of Providence R. L, he went to Canada and entered the College of st. Hya- cinth, where he studied with marked success until he was promoted to the higher branches of philosophy and the ology, which he pursued at St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore. Md.
 During the summer of 1873 he was adopted as student of the Hartford diocese by the late Bishop Mcfarland and was ordained at St. Mary's on December 22, 1877, by Bishop Gibbons. He said his first mass in the Church of the Immaculate Conception. Water bury during the pastorate of the late Rev Lawrence Walsh. well known in this city where he frequently lectur- ed Soon after his ordination he was appointed by the Rt. Rev. Lawrence McMahon. bishop of the diocese of | y church, New Haven, and he remained there seven years.
 How Idea Had Its Birth.
 It was in New Haven that he con ceived the idea of a great Catholic society to be restricted in it's member ship to practical Catholics and to be organized under the auspices of the church-a secret society that Catholics could join with the sanction of the church
 A number of young men in New Haven had requested of Father Mc- Mvney permission to join one of the existing fraternal orders. Father Mo- Givney submitted the matter to the bishop. who advised against 1t. The Catholic people then struck Father McGivney so fOrcibIy that he appealed to several prominent New Haven Cath olics to establish a branch of the Cath olfc Order of FOreSters of Massachu- setts, or at least to do something of that kind. It was found that they could not join the Massachusetts body, that an original society be formed. Father McGivney suggested for a name the Sons of Columbus. After some discussion James T. Mullen thought of the Knights of Columbus, name that was immediately adopted.
 
 mittee to procure a charter, which he proceeded to do and it is worth while to examine that first charter of the Knights of Columbus. It reads as follows:
 ney, Patrick Lawlor, Matthew C.. O'Connor, Cornelius T. Driscoll, James T. Mullen. John T. Kerrigan. Daniel ColweH, William M Geary, Michael Curran and such persons as may from time to time be associated with them together with their successors, be and they are hereby constituted a body corporate and polite by the name of the Knights of Columbus of New F1a- ven, with the purpose of rendering mu-s tual aid and assistance to the mem bers of said society and their families, and by that name shall have perpet- ual succession and be capable in law to purchase and receive and hold and convey all kinds of property, both real and personal, requisite or convenient, for the purpose of said society: may have a common seal which they may change and renew at pleasure: may sue and be sued, defend and be de- tended, plead and be pleaded. answer and be answered unto by their cor porate name, in all courts and places may elect such officers and agents as shall be necessary. and may make and execute necessary by laws, rules ana regulations for the proper management of said society and it's property, provided said by, laws, rules and regulations shall not | be inconsistent with the general laws | of this state.
 Sec 2.-This resolution may be alter ed, amended or repealed at the pleas ure of the General Assembly.
 Some Of His Associates.
 In the January session of the Leeis- Iature of 1889 several amendments to the charter were passed, but the rules of the organization to-day are practi- ca1ly the same as were adopted at that time. Associated with Father McGiv- 1ey in this enterprise were Daniel Col we'll, James T.. Mullen. Matthew e. ]. pConnor, Cornelius T. DriscoI, John ],