Knights of Columbus Council 7259 at 211 Irwin Drive PO Box 37, Newton Grove, NC 28366 US - History of Council 7259
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History of Council 7259 |
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Dr. John Carr Monk
Council 7259
Newton Grove, NC
Council 7259 received its charter from the Supreme Council on March 4, 1979. At this time Everette Lamczyk was the District Deputy that guided the formation of the council. The Charter Officers of the council were:
Grand Knight Elasta L. Smith
Chaplain Fr. Allen Jacobs
Deputy Grand Knight Homer Marshall
Chancellor Billy Glover
Warden Dr. Hamp Hubbard
Recorder Bob Kivel
Financial Secretary Tom Wright
Treasurer Frank Castellucci
Advocate Tom West
Trustee Anthony Godwin
Trustee George Godwin
Trustee J. L. Darden
When first chartered on March 4, 1979, Council 7259 met at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish Hall. Later they met at St. Mark's Hall where they still meet on the 2nd Monday of the month at 7:30 PM for the transaction of council business and the 4th Monday of the months of September through May for a social meeting with council family members.
Dr. John Carr Monk Council has had some very successful events during their existence. In September 1985 they sponsored Mule Days Bar-B-Q chicken dinner which was a major fund raiser for the council good works. In 1986 Council 9001 in Dunn, NC spun off this council and in 1996 Council 11848 did the same. Since 1981 the council has collected over $ 128,800.00 during their LAMB Operation in Johnston, Harnett and Sampson Counties. The council has adopted a two (2) mile stretch of I-40 north of Newton Grove and clean it every 3 months . Through the CFCA this council adopted Jon Russell Mitra Pinlac of the Philippines Islands and support him with a monthly donation of $20.00 and this commenced in 1997.
BIOGRAPHY OF DOCTOR JOHN CARR MONK
(Council namesake)
Monsignor Michael A. Irwin, pastor of the Catholic Church at Newton Grove, NC from 1904 to 1928 proudly wrote the story of Dr. Monk for the readers of the Columbian magazine in June 1926, entitling his article, "A Thousand Catholics From One Man's Faith." Even earlier (1890), His Eminence James Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore had published the story of this doctor's faith, and actions on behalf of the church, for a national audience, in the pages of the United States Catholic Historical Magazine. And the inspiring story was made known in the secular papers of North Carolina on several occasions, including the articles by Hoover Adams (in both the Greensboro Daily News as well as in the Charlotte Observer in 1939. Monsignor Frederick A. Koch also produced an article in the Raleigh News and Observer (1947). The scholarly work of Charles H. Bowman, The North Carolina Historical Review (1973) provided an important contribution to the story of Doctor Monk. Nationally as well as locally, the story of Dr. Monk has inspired many for over a century.
John Carr, the second son of Archibald and Harriet (Hargrove) Monk was born in northern Sampson County on February 19, 1827, and was educated in Sampson and Moore Counties. At the age of 19, the young student became a teacher, and for four years taught in the schools of Sampson County. In 1850, when he was 23, John Carr began to attend the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated as a medical doctor in 1852. He returned to practice in Sampson, Johnston and Wayne Counties. He married Euphemia Alice Eason of nearby Meadow in 1855, and established his home in Newton Grove. He was an active Mason, Methodist, and local leader in the Whig political party (which was opposed to Southern secession). He is believed to have rendered medical assistance to the wounded following the nearby Battle of Bentonville (March 17-19 1865). After the war, he became a Republican, ran a large farming operation, continued to practice medicine, opened a pharmacy and dry goods store, was postmaster for a time, and was elected Trustee of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.When the Methodist Church in North Carolina voted to evict the black members of the church in 1869, Monk objected, and withdrew from active membership. Furthermore, he, with the help of his brother Rufus, built a school for the black community, where he taught. In January of 1871, his brother Julius showed him a copy of the New York Herald (dated January 2, 1871), which had arrived as packing material in a shipment of supplies for Monk's drugstore. It contained a sermon of the Archbishop of New York, John McCloskey, on the nature of the true Church of Jesus Christ. Impressed by the vision of such a church--one, holy, and apostolic--John Carr Monk wrote a letter of inquiry, addressed "To Any Catholic Priest/Wilmington, NC". The letter arrived into the hands of the young Bishop Gibbons, who sent books and began a correspondence with the doctor.
By October of 1871, Monk and his family had made the decision to become Catholics, and were baptized into the faith on October 27, at St. Thomas' Church in Wilmington, NC. Returning to Newton Grove, the new Catholic family encountered some hostility and opposition, which they strove to overcome by patient instruction and good example. the first visit by a priest, Father Mark S. Gross, in January 1872, was soon followed by monthly visits, during which Mass was celebrated at Monk's home, instruction given to inquirers, and candidates baptized, including John Thomas Gregory (in the Spring of 1872, "late minister of the Campbellite sect" Dr. Monk soon donated land on which he constructed a church, which was consecrated by Bishop Gibbons on August 11, 1874. The doctor died suddenly, at the age of 50, on September 10, 1877, and was buried in the church cemetery, hailed on his tombstone as the "Cornelius" of the neighborhood" (Arts 10: 1-48)