Our Council History
On May 13, 1956, the Supreme Council Knights of Columbus of New Haven, Connecticut, granted a charter to Manordale Valley Council No. 4226, signed by Supreme Knight Luke Hart. Sixty (60) Catholic men from the Manordale Valley – comprising Murrysville, Export, Delmont and Slickville and vicinity – have their names enrolled on this charter to their perpetual honor and memory.
The first Grand Knight of the Council was William Dougherty who served three terms. Meetings of the council in those early years were held in St. Mary church in Export, moving to St. John in Delmont in 1961 and back to St. Mary in 1962. The Council purchased their first and only home, the original Mother of Sorrows Church, from the Greensburg Diocese in 1963. The first meeting of Council 4226 in their new home was July 21,1963.
The first year found the Knights and their ladies a most effective group holding a Memorial Service, a Christmas Dinner, and a New Year’s Eve Party before the year was out. The first council picnic was held on the council grounds the next summer. The 500 Club, which had been established in 1962 to raise the funds needed to purchase this home, was quite successful; the home was paid off and the mortgage was burned in April 1966. The 500 Club, dissolved in 1965, was re-activated in 1966 to raise the funds needed to fix up the building and keep the Home Association solvent.