The Catholic orders: the Knights of America, the Foresters, the Legion, the Columbia

In Howard's roster, 1907 · the parish's own benefit system

Why these bodies exist: Mishawaka's Catholic roster cluster is the densest part of its secret world — five bodies in Howard's list — and it exists for a documented reason. The Church's published law of the era warned Catholics against the secular secret orders, and the Catholic answer was to build the same machinery inside the parish: Catholic insurance orders, with priests' approbation, selling the same sick and death benefits in courts and councils that answered to Catholic supreme bodies. The Belgian and German parishes of the west and south sides filled them. The Catholic Knights of America kept St. Michael's Branch in Mishawaka — No. 498 in Howard's roster, where John J. Schindler is its recording secretary; No. 495 in the 1921 directory. The number conflict is printed whole in its own paragraph below. The order itself is documented whole: founded at Nashville on 23 April 1877 — first as the Order of United Catholics, renamed Catholic Knights of America on Bishop Feehan's recommendation — as "a fraternal life-insurance company," its founding aim a death benefit not to exceed $1,000; by 1907 it counted some 20,000 members in 560 branches and had paid nearly fifteen million dollars to the heirs of its dead. Its long end is in the industry's own register: the Catholic Knights of America merged into the Catholic Knights in 2005, and that body in turn became part of Catholic Financial Life in 2010 — so Mishawaka's branch, whatever its local course, belongs to an order whose surviving line is a modern insurance company, which is what it had been, under the regalia, from 1877. The Catholic Order of Foresters kept two Mishawaka courts, divided as the order's work was divided: St. John's Court No. 952 for the men (John Barry, chief ranger; William Gehl, secretary) and the Sacred Heart Court for the women (Mrs. Minnie S. Vincent, chief ranger; Mrs. Anna Winters, record keeper) — both meeting by 1921 at St. Joseph's Hall, 217 West Third, the parish hall the directory names for them. The Catholic Benevolent Legion kept St. Joseph Valley Council No. 503 — a council named for the valley, not the town, in a roster of town bodies — and the order's machinery is documented from its own era: organized 5 September 1881, its benefit grades running from $500 to $5,000, "within the means of every sober, industrious man." The Knights and Ladies of Columbia kept Mishawaka Council No. 2 (C. F. Taylor, scribe) — the roster's one mixed Catholic order, knights and ladies in a single council, classed among the fraternal benefit societies in the industry's census. Around them stood the federation that tied the cluster to the county: the St. Joseph County Federation of Catholic Societies, whose president in Howard's account was the Catholic Knights' own recording secretary, John J. Schindler of Mishawaka.

498 or 495 — the branch number, printed whole: St. Michael's Branch of the Catholic Knights of America is No. 498 in Howard (1907) and No. 495 in Polk's directory (1921). Both readings come off digitized texts, and the two cannot both be right: an order's branch numbers are issued once and kept. No third record reached for this section decides between them, and the fragment chooses neither. The settling sources are named: the order's own supreme records — its proceedings and branch registers, which descend to Catholic Financial Life as the order's successor — and the page images of Howard and Polk themselves, against the digitized texts. Until one of those is read, the branch stands in this record under both numbers, dated to their books, as the conflict stands in the Private Clubs note; the body, its parish and its secretary are not in doubt, only its number.

Sources:

1. Timothy E. Howard, A History of St. Joseph County, Indiana, Vol. I (1907), p. 345 — the Catholic Knights' St. Michael's Branch No. 498 and its recording secretary; the Foresters' courts, the Legion's council, the Columbia council, with officers; the Federation of Catholic Societies from Howard's Catholic chapter; read first-hand.
2. R. L. Polk & Co., South Bend City Directory, 1921 — St. Michael's Branch as No. 495; the Foresters' courts and the Catholic Knights meeting at St. Joseph's Hall, 217 W. Third; as carried in the Private Clubs section of this history.
3. The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), "Catholic Knights of America" — the order's founding at Nashville in 1877, its insurance character, its 1907 scale and payments; the order's history as compiled at the Catholic University of America (the $1,000 founding benefit aim, the 2005 merger's line).
4. American Fraternal Alliance, Name and Status Changes of Fraternal Benefit Societies (2012) — "Catholic Knights of America, St. Louis, Mo. — Merged with Catholic Knights in 2005"; the Catholic Knights' 2010 merger forming Catholic Financial Life.
5. Henry Reed Stiles, History of Kings County and the City of Brooklyn (1884) — the Catholic Benevolent Legion organized 5 September 1881; its benefit grades of $500 to $5,000.