Putnam, Conn. – Although much has changed in northeastern Connecticut since 1892, Knights of Columbus Cargill Council 64 remains a force for good in the community. That was recognized on Sunday morning, July 20, when Knights and their families celebrated the council’s 133rd anniversary.
Observances began with Mass at St. Mary Church of the Visitation on Providence Street, followed with the blessing and dedication of the new St. Therese Parish sign on the church’s front lawn. The sign was recently commissioned by, and purchased for, the parish by Cargill Council, with generous support from St. Mary’s Circle 543 of the Daughters of Isabella, which is based at St. Mary’s.
Celebrations concluded with a memorial prayer service at St. Mary’s Cemetery, at the grave of Cargill Council’s first grand knight, Edward M. Mullan. The service was held for the repose of the souls of the council’s deceased members and their families.
The Roman Catholic fraternal group was founded 133 years ago this summer, on July 26, 1892, only a decade after the international Knights of Columbus organization was begun in 1882. Continuously active since its founding, Cargill Council was the sixty-fourth local council founded since the Knights’ parent organization came into existence, hence it being numbered 64. It’s one of only 47 local Knights of Columbus councils worldwide which has existed continuously since at least 1892.
Cargill Council’s original members elected Mullan, who later served as Putnam’s postmaster, as their leader, known as the Grand Knight. Elected to three annual terms, he served as grand knight from 1892 to 1895. He remained a member of the council until his death in 1916, at the age of 61. Council officials held the service at his grave, to symbolize all the council’s Knights down through the organization’s first 133 years.
Although it may seem strange to some people to hold a celebration in a cemetery, the current Grand Knight, John F. Xeller, explained that there was an important thought behind the idea.
“Cargill Council has had several homes here in Putnam since it started 133 years ago,” he said. “Its first home was in the Bradley Theater, downtown. Later we spent decades in a large building off the lower end of Church Street. Since 1976, we’ve been on Providence Street, in what used to be the Putnam Polish Club. Even though most current Knights identify with the Providence Street building, the grave of our very first Grand Knight is the perfect symbol for every member of Cargill Council, living and deceased, past and present.”
Today, with almost 200 members, Cargill Council 64 serves the four churches of St. Therese Parish, including St. Mary’s in Putnam, St. Joseph’s in North Grosvenordale, St. Stephen’s in Quinebaug and Most Holy Trinity in Pomfret.
In addition to support for its members and their families, Cargill Council maintains a dedicated, strong, ongoing commitment to the parish. The council also sponsors or assists year-round with many positive, local programs, including, among literally dozens of events, its annual “Joe Bousquet Christmas Giving Appeal” for the needy in the area, food drives for the local poor, providing free winter coats for local children and adults, a year-round program for the widows of its deceased members, an annual council golf tournament and continuing work to end abortion and assisted suicide and to otherwise support the “Culture of Life.”
Led by Grand Knight Xeller, he and the council’s other elected officers run Cargill Council. The organization does its own fundraising, using the net proceeds to pay for its programs.
The Knights of Columbus is the world’s largest Catholic lay organization, a fraternal benefit society made up of Catholic men and their families. It was founded in New Haven, Connecticut, on March 29, 1882, by a parish priest, Father Michael J. McGivney. Looking at the problems being suffered by Catholics in and around New Haven in the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century, he founded the society so that members could support each other religiously, morally, socially and financially.
Since then, the organization has grown to over two million members and their families in almost 17,000 active, local councils in fifteen countries worldwide, including the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Philippines, among others. Since 2005, the Knights of Columbus have expanded into Poland, Cuba, Ukraine, Lithuania and South Korea.
Council 64 and the world’s other K of C councils provide members and their families with volunteer opportunities in service to the Catholic Church, their communities, families and young people. Worldwide in 2024, the Knights of Columbus donated more than 47 million volunteer hours and more than 190 million dollars to charity.
Father McGivney, a Waterbury, Connecticut, native who died in 1890, was declared as blessed by the Roman Catholic Church in 2020. If he is canonized as a saint, McGivney would become Connecticut’s first Catholic saint and the first American parish priest to be so honored.
By John D. Ryan
Knights of Columbus Cargill Council 64
