The Knights of Columbus: Mishawaka Council 1878

Meeting at its own club by 1921 · working still

The council in 1921: Mishawaka's Knights of Columbus council, No. 1878, is documented in the 1921 directory with a clubhouse of its own: "Knights of Columbus, Mishawaka Council 1878 — meet second and fourth Mondays at Knights of Columbus Club, 208–210 Lincoln Way W," with Fred J. Hums as grand knight, B. J. Richards as financial secretary and Martin G. Friedman as recorder. A council meeting in its own club rooms on the Lincolnway in 1921 was among the substantial club bodies of the town, and its presence in that year's directory is itself the correction of an error the modern record invites: the council's federal tax record carries an Internal Revenue Service ruling date of October 1940, and at least one nonprofit directory repeats 1940 as the council's founding. It is nothing of the kind — 1940 is the order-wide group-ruling date that rides on every council's record, and the 1921 directory, printed nineteen years earlier, has the council meeting under its own roof. The charter year proper has not been reached; the Supreme Council's charter roll is the settling source, and the council is documented from 1921.

The seats, in conflict, and the working present: The council's modern addresses stand in the record unreconciled, and they are printed so. The Indiana State Council's directory carries Council 1878 at 114 West First Street; the diocese's organizations page carries the Mishawaka council at 914 Division Street; and the nonprofit directories carry the council at the First Street address, where place records mark a "Knights of Columbus Club" banquet hall as permanently closed, with a second council pin on South Spring Street likewise closed. What is not in conflict is the council itself: it offered four $500 Catholic-education scholarships in February 2023, applications taken by its grand knight; it stood as a named sponsor of the city's Columbus Day celebrations in October 2021 and again on 8 October 2023; and in May 2024 it hosted a parish trivia night with the cash bar "provided by the Knights of Columbus." The council works; the course of its First Street club hall — when it opened, whether the state directory's address is a hall, an office, or a survivor's listing — is a named gap, settled by the Tribune's building record and the council's own. A second, parish-based council stands in the diocese's list beside it: Queen of Peace Council No. 8617, at 4508 Vistula Road.

Sources:

1. R. L. Polk & Co., South Bend City Directory, 1921, Mishawaka section, "Secret and Benevolent Societies" — Council 1878 at the Knights of Columbus Club, 208–210 Lincoln Way W., officers named; read first-hand.
2. Internal Revenue Service exempt-organizations records — Knights of Columbus, 1878 Mishawaka Council, EIN 88-1930579; the October 1940 ruling date identified in the entry as the order's group ruling; Indiana State Council directory (uknight.org) — Council 1878, 114 W. 1st St.; Diocese of Fort Wayne–South Bend, organizations page — Mishawaka Council 1878, 914 Division St., and Queen of Peace Council 8617, 4508 Vistula Rd.
3. Mishawaka Catholic School newsletter, February 2023 — the council's scholarships; Fra Noi, 30 November 2021 and 18 February 2024 — the Columbus Day sponsorships; parish bulletin record, May 2024 — the trivia night.