Nineteenth century historian J.R. Cole credits the Knight family with making many of the most elegant features of the Al Saints Church possible. The Knight family worshipped here on a regular basis and many parishioners came to see the family and to be seen by them. Margie Bucheit, writing in the “Warwick Beacon” in 1974, notes, “The Knight family…had their own section in the back of the church with a private entrance.” There was no doubt in any of the parishioner’s minds that the Knights were special and not part of the common congregation.

Thanks to the Knights, All Saints Church was one of the few 19th century churches that did not charge a pew rental. The custom of the time and the necessity to raise funds made this a common practice. The Knights also provided for a portion of the clergy’s salary as well. Bucheit tells us, “The rector received half of his pay from the paymaster at the mill and stood in line with the workers to receive his check.” In addition to his salary, the rector also received certain “Fringe benefits.”

For those who were not of the same faith, the Knights made other provisions. They provided room on the third floor of the company store for a school and allowed various buildings to be used as dance halls, men’s clubs and a library. St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church also benefited from the Knights’ generosity. The new building on Greenwich Avenue was dedicated in 1917 and the entire village celebrated, never realizing that within the next few years major changes would take place that would transform Pontiac and change the lives of many who lived there.

At the beginning of the 1920s, both the churches and the village fared well. The Knights, enjoying the prosperity brought about by World War I, responded generously in helping the churches on a number of occasions. In 1915 Webster Knight and Prescott Knight gave a tract of land, adjacent to the church congregations of Natick and Pontiac, to be used as a burial ground. In 1921 the cemetery was dedicated.

While Pontiac was attempting to adjust to the changes following World War I, adverse conditions battered the area. In 1918-19 a very severe winter in which trolley lines were tied up and people were isolated was followed by an influenza epidemic, which especially affect3ed those in the mill villages. Not long after, everyone in Pontiac was shocked and disturbed when it was learned that the Knights had sold their firm to the Consolidated Textile Corporation of New York. The era of paternalism was rapidly coming to a close and, within a shirt time, Pontiac would be torn by a devastating strike.

One of the lasting legacies of the Knights that remained for many years was the beautiful Knight Farm on East Ave. Today, Rhode Island Mall and the Community College of Rhode Island occupy much of what was once the pride of the Knight family. These buildings and the modern highway that is East Ave. today is a far cry from the Knight farm that occupied the site during the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.

The change is so great and overwhelming that even those who used the old East Ave. as a regular pathway have to pause to remember that this section of busy road, with its huge brick and cement stores and modern campus, was once a charming rural countryside. Automobiles, lined row after row in black-topped parking lots at the mall and the community college, have replaced prize-shirt-horn cattle in open pasture land. Red barns, hay fields, a half mile of track for trotting horses and the beauty of a country setting are but a pleasant memory.

Looking back to earlier decades brings many fond memories of the way it used to be. The Knight farm once covered over 500 acres and extended along the Pawtuxet River beyond the present Rhode Island Mall, along Greenwich Ave., then down Tollgate Road and Commonwealth Ave. The large open tracts of land are gone, but the magnificent house and many of the farm buildings remain. From the highway, the Knights’ house and the tall shingle-style water tower that stands behind it, can still be seen.

The story of the powerful mill owners, the Knights, and their farm will be continued.