Ontario Knights restore the graves of past leaders as they prepare to celebrate the jurisdiction’s 125th anniversary

By Cecilia Engbert

8/29/2024

Source

Ontario State Deputy Bruce Poulin sat in front of a tombstone in Notre Dame Cemetery on Aug. 12, repainting the faded epitaph of Father John O’Gorman, a founding member of the first K of C council in Ontario. It was the third tombstone he had repainted in the Ottawa cemetery, and each one took a tedious three hours to complete. But Poulin didn’t mind; he was just one Knight honoring another.

Poulin finished his painting just in time to join State Chaplain Archbishop Marcel Damphousse of Ottawa-Cornwall and other guests for that day’s ceremony to rededicate Father O’Gorman’s grave and the graves of seven other early K of C leaders — including six past state deputies — buried in the cemetery.

“We are acknowledging the legacy upon which we are building our success today, built on their sacrifice and successes of yesteryear,” said Poulin, who discovered the eight graves while investigating the history of Ontario Knights in anticipation of the jurisdiction’s 125th anniversary. Ottawa Council 485, the first council in Ontario, was chartered Jan. 28, 1900.

According to his research, more Ontario state deputies are buried in Notre Dame Cemetery than any other site.

“That got my interest going, so I went out to the cemetery to see these tombstones,” Poulin said. “I saw that they were kind of worn out; there was moss growing on them, they were dirty, and the lettering had all faded. Many of these tombstones date back to the 1920s and ’30s.”

The state council decided to restore the eight graves as part of a series of initiatives commemorating the 125th anniversary. This summer, a contractor was hired to power-wash and clean up the tombstones and raise or straighten the stones that had become overgrown and buried in dirt and grass.

One thing the contractor would not restore, however, were the faded lead inscriptions on three of the Knights’ tombstones. So Poulin took matters into his own hands.

“I said, ‘OK, somebody’s got to do it.’ So, I went to our hardware store, bought some paint and a paintbrush and off I went,” he said. “It took approximately three hours per tombstone to sand the letters, clean them and apply a [rust-inhibitive] primer and semigloss black paint on the letters with a paintbrush by hand.”

The cemetery is the final resting place of five charter members of Council 485, including its charter grand knight, John Dunne (1860-1924), and its first chaplain, Father Matthew Whelan (1853-1922). Dunne was also the first Canadian-born state deputy of what was then the jurisdiction of Canada and Newfoundland.

The other charter council members buried at Notre Dame are Father John O’Gorman (1884-1933), a World War I military chaplain who was wounded at the Battle of the Somme and later helped to lead the Order’s Canadian Catholic Army Hut program; State Deputy Michael Gorman (1856-1935), a prominent lawyer; and State Deputy Francis Latchford (1856-1938), a judge on the Supreme Court of Ontario. Three more state deputies are buried there, as well: Thomas Brown (1874-1945), Philip Phelan (1888-1966) and Yvon Robert (1939-2020).

At the Aug. 12 rededication ceremony, Knights had the opportunity to both honor and pray for these past leaders. A Fourth Degree honor guard and bagpiper Donald MacDonald, past grand knight of Council 485, led dignitaries and guests from grave to grave throughout the cemetery. At each tombstone, Poulin shared information about the Knight buried there, and Archbishop Damphousse led a specific prayer for each one.

Michael O’Neill, a Knight for more than 65 years and president of the Blessed Michael McGivney Honoris in Ottawa, also spoke about the distinguished contributions of several of the Knights. O’Neill, who assisted Poulin with his research, is particularly happy to see the pioneering members of Council 485 remembered and acknowledged.

“It was a lovely ceremony,” he said, adding, “[Council] 485 has to be honored because of what they did and what they have done for years and years.”

O’Neill is helping to carry on the council’s legacy. In 1998, he was involved in establishing St. Patrick’s Basilica Council 12158, which merged with Ottawa Council 485 in 2022 to form St. Patrick’s Basilica Council 485.

The state council has several other projects in the works in honor of the anniversary, including the restoration of a cross placed in Midland, Ontario, by the Knights in 1922, and the restoration of the Peace Monument in Windsor, which was erected by the Knights in 1967 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation.

When Poulin initially reached out to Notre Dame Cemetery for permission to restore the eight tombstones, he discovered a sobering fact: The cemetery did not have a single family contact for any of the deceased K of C leaders. But even if their descendants have largely forgotten them, Poulin is confident Ontario Knights never will.

“The beauty of the restoration was, although these past state deputies had been forgotten through the generations by their families, they are not forgotten by the Knights of Columbus,” Poulin said. “I think that is very inspiring, that they can rest assured that their contributions as Catholic men, fathers and husbands made society a better place, and they are still being acknowledged and appreciated by the Knights.”

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CECILIA ENGBERT is a content producer for the Knights of Columbus communications department.