by Father Hugh L. Burns, OP
The upcoming beatification of Father Michael McGivney (below), founder of the Knights of Columbus, was a poignant reminder of my family’s history in the Knights during its infancy in New Haven, Connecticut.
My paternal great-grandfathers — Hugh Augustus Burns and William J. Fitzgerald — were members of that first council. Both had Brooklyn roots and lived in Ansonia, Connecticut, on the outskirts of New Haven, where the Knights began.
Hugh Augustus was the son of Irish and Scottish immigrants. I bear his first name but wish my parents gave me that middle name — Augustus! He was born in Brooklyn and moved to Ansonia to begin a family life with Mary Fagan, an Irish immigrant who lived in Brooklyn in the 1880s after getting off the boat in lower Manhattan.
My other great-grandfather, Will Fitzgerald, arrived in Brooklyn from County Cork, Ireland, and made his way to Ansonia to join an older sister. Both men worked in the mills along the Housatonic River in the days before workmen’s compensation and insurance while working under often dangerous circumstances with few safety measures.
A neighbor and fellow Irishman worked alongside Will in the mill. They both had large families of nine children. My great-grandfather’s companion lost an arm one day in the machinery. There was no compensation or litigation in those days, just an offer to work the time clock at the factory gate with the one arm he still had. We knew of this friend through stories passed down. He was called “Pa” King. His descendants remain close friends of my family to this day, long after a tragedy on the factory floor in the 1880s.
Pa’s misfortune no doubt alerted both Hugh and Will to the need for some kind of security for their growing families in the event an accident should befall them. In nearby New Haven, Father McGivney’s Knights of Columbus began as an insurance program to help working-class immigrants in the event of disaster. It seemed ideal for both Will and Hugh Augustus. So they joined Father McGivney at the genesis of the Knights and found a security that “Pa” King never had.
The Knights’ insurance program has spread far beyond Connecticut. My brother-in-law, Chris Avola, worked in the Knights’ insurance program for several years. The Knights of Columbus were there to assure my two immigrant ancestors and countless others that unforeseen tragic events would not sweep away the American dream they struggled to attain. The Knights provided a comradery in their Catholic faith. Their strong faith inspired them to help build the magnificent Assumption Church in Ansonia. My grandmother, Will’s daughter Margaret Burns, told me stories of her father and father-in-law, along with many other immigrants, cutting and hauling the stones to the church construction site. She always referred to it as the “New Church,” even though it was built in 1889.
She also reminded me that Will Fitzgerald earned one dollar a day in the mills with nine mouths to feed, and still, one dollar was dropped in the offertory basket every Sunday. Their Catholic faith was a way of life — the secret to living good and honest lives in a foreign land not always friendly to Catholics and Irish immigrants expendable in the factories.
Our family has maintained its Knights connections ever since. My grandfather, John F. Burns, and my dad, Hugh L. Sr., were active Knights. My father and mother moved to retire in Florida in the mid-1980s. After working two jobs for many years, my dad finally had free time. He used it to get deeply involved in community and parish affairs. He became very active in the Knights and was a diocesan lobbyist for pro-life issues at the Florida legislature. My dad started a prison ministry for youth offenders at a local prison with no Catholic presence. He used his background as a social worker to address the needs of the youth and, later, women offenders.
In the 1990s, my parents were recognized as the “Knights of Columbus Family of the Year” for the state of Florida. My dad was invited to join the Knights’ ranks of the Fourth Degree. He agreed, on the condition that he wouldn’t have to wear the feathered hat and sword. I am sure Will Fitzgerald and Hugh Augustus looked down from heaven with pride that their grandson made his Catholic faith the hallmark of his life.
In 1989, I joined the Knights at a local council while preaching a parish mission in Franklin, North Carolina. I now serve as chaplain to the Council in South Ozone Park. I also joined the newly-established Knights of St. Peter Claver in our parish of St. Teresa of Avila-St. Anthony of Padua in South Ozone Park.
I only hope to make my great-grandfathers proud, as did my dad, by carrying on a family legacy of faith and service that began in Brooklyn and in digging the foundation of Assumption Church in Ansonia, Connecticut. Friday October 18th – Saturday November 9th, 2024.
Father Hugh L. Burns, OP, is the administrator at St Teresa of Avila, Ozone Park.
