The Knights of Columbus is a Catholic fraternal organization that has existed for more than 100 years to promote and protect Catholic tradition and serve the community.
Founded in 1882 in Connecticut by Father Michael J. McGivney, local and state councils soon appeared throughout the American West. In 1901, Michael F. Burke, who was a member of the Knights in Indiana, arrived in El Paso to supervise the laying of the first tracks of the city’s electric streetcars.
Under his encouragement, several local Catholic men formed Council No. 638 at Immaculate Conception Church in April 1902 with 39 members. As the first council in Texas, Council No. 638 is still considered the Mother Council of Texas.
Through the years, the Knights of Columbus have continued to serve the Diocese of El Paso with emphasis on fraternity and mutual assistance, Catholic charity toward the needy, education and scholarships, and preservation of the Catholic heritage.
In the 1920s, the Knights of Columbus were instrumental in resisting the takeover of local government in El Paso by the Ku Klux Klan. In April 1922, the Klan successfully ran a slate of candidates for the school board. Once in control, they used secret meetings to fire Catholic school principals and several Catholic staff. Attorney William H. Fryer, a member of the Knights, spearheaded the effort to remove Klan members from the school board. Fryer and other anti-Klan activists followed KKK members to secret meetings and wrote down license plate numbers and then made public the names of Klansmen. In February 1923, the local Klan was defeated in the mayoral election and in April, the Klan also lost the school board election.
Joseph I. Driscoll served as the Grand Knight of El Paso Council No. 638 in 1917 and as the State Deputy of Texas for nine consecutive terms beginning in 1923. Under him, St. Mary’s Chapel was built at Texas A&M College and a State Historical Commission was created to preserve the history of Catholicism in Texas. Out of this effort developed the Texas Catholic Historical Society which still exists today, managing the Texas Catholic Archives at St. Edward’s University in Austin. A final achievement of Driscoll was the creation of Spanish-speaking councils with the establishment of the Del Norte Council No. 2592 in December 1925 in El Paso as the first Spanish-speaking council in the United States.
The patriotic support provided by the Knights of Columbus to soldiers and veterans throughout the years can very well be said to have started in El Paso in 1916 when the Knights instituted Knights of Columbus Huts. The KC Huts were the invention of El Paso Council No. 638 during the Mexican Revolution when thousands of soldiers were stationed along the border under the command of General Blackjack Pershing including 60,000 at Fort Bliss.
The El Paso Council built the first KC Hut at Fort Bliss which provided recreational, social, and religious services to soldiers. By the end of 1916, 14 KC Huts had been built in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona serving 250,000 men. The Huts provided soldiers free candy and cigarettes, facilities for writing home, lounging off duty, reading, and meeting friends, as well as religious services on Sundays. The slogan of the Huts, displayed on the sign hanging above the door, “Everybody Welcome, Everything Free,” soon became known to soldiers stationed all along the border. After America’s entrance into World War I, the Knights of Columbus asked General Pershing permission to set up KC Huts at all military installations in the United States and abroad. General Pershing, remembering the value of the Huts at Fort Bliss in 1916, readily agreed to their establishment at bases in the United States, France, Germany, Italy and Siberia. By 1918, over 1,500 Knights had volunteered to serve at the front as secretaries of the KC Huts. More than $14 million was raised during the war for the project as the slogan, “Everybody Welcome – Everything Free,” became a byword in camps, cantonments and overseas combat zones. The idea carried on in World War II with various civilian service organizations including the USO that owe their origin to the El Paso Knights of Columbus.
Janine Young is the author of the Centennial History of the Diocese of El Paso. She works for the Foundation for the Diocese of El Paso. For more on the Centennial, go to www.elpasodiocese.org.
Founded in 1882 in Connecticut by Father Michael J. McGivney, local and state councils soon appeared throughout the American West. In 1901, Michael F. Burke, who was a member of the Knights in Indiana, arrived in El Paso to supervise the laying of the first tracks of the city’s electric streetcars.
Under his encouragement, several local Catholic men formed Council No. 638 at Immaculate Conception Church in April 1902 with 39 members. As the first council in Texas, Council No. 638 is still considered the Mother Council of Texas.
Through the years, the Knights of Columbus have continued to serve the Diocese of El Paso with emphasis on fraternity and mutual assistance, Catholic charity toward the needy, education and scholarships, and preservation of the Catholic heritage.
In the 1920s, the Knights of Columbus were instrumental in resisting the takeover of local government in El Paso by the Ku Klux Klan. In April 1922, the Klan successfully ran a slate of candidates for the school board. Once in control, they used secret meetings to fire Catholic school principals and several Catholic staff. Attorney William H. Fryer, a member of the Knights, spearheaded the effort to remove Klan members from the school board. Fryer and other anti-Klan activists followed KKK members to secret meetings and wrote down license plate numbers and then made public the names of Klansmen. In February 1923, the local Klan was defeated in the mayoral election and in April, the Klan also lost the school board election.
Joseph I. Driscoll served as the Grand Knight of El Paso Council No. 638 in 1917 and as the State Deputy of Texas for nine consecutive terms beginning in 1923. Under him, St. Mary’s Chapel was built at Texas A&M College and a State Historical Commission was created to preserve the history of Catholicism in Texas. Out of this effort developed the Texas Catholic Historical Society which still exists today, managing the Texas Catholic Archives at St. Edward’s University in Austin. A final achievement of Driscoll was the creation of Spanish-speaking councils with the establishment of the Del Norte Council No. 2592 in December 1925 in El Paso as the first Spanish-speaking council in the United States.
The patriotic support provided by the Knights of Columbus to soldiers and veterans throughout the years can very well be said to have started in El Paso in 1916 when the Knights instituted Knights of Columbus Huts. The KC Huts were the invention of El Paso Council No. 638 during the Mexican Revolution when thousands of soldiers were stationed along the border under the command of General Blackjack Pershing including 60,000 at Fort Bliss.
The El Paso Council built the first KC Hut at Fort Bliss which provided recreational, social, and religious services to soldiers. By the end of 1916, 14 KC Huts had been built in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona serving 250,000 men. The Huts provided soldiers free candy and cigarettes, facilities for writing home, lounging off duty, reading, and meeting friends, as well as religious services on Sundays. The slogan of the Huts, displayed on the sign hanging above the door, “Everybody Welcome, Everything Free,” soon became known to soldiers stationed all along the border. After America’s entrance into World War I, the Knights of Columbus asked General Pershing permission to set up KC Huts at all military installations in the United States and abroad. General Pershing, remembering the value of the Huts at Fort Bliss in 1916, readily agreed to their establishment at bases in the United States, France, Germany, Italy and Siberia. By 1918, over 1,500 Knights had volunteered to serve at the front as secretaries of the KC Huts. More than $14 million was raised during the war for the project as the slogan, “Everybody Welcome – Everything Free,” became a byword in camps, cantonments and overseas combat zones. The idea carried on in World War II with various civilian service organizations including the USO that owe their origin to the El Paso Knights of Columbus.
Janine Young is the author of the Centennial History of the Diocese of El Paso. She works for the Foundation for the Diocese of El Paso. For more on the Centennial, go to www.elpasodiocese.org.