History

Knights of Columbus 6420 – Scott City, MO was chartered on December 10, 1972 with 49 members.  As of November, 2007 the membership is at 541.

It was late summer, 1972 when District Deputy, P.J. Schlosser and insurance representative, Tony Day approached the Reverend Thomas Allen, then pastor of St. Joseph Church and asked his support of starting a Knights of Columbus Council in Scott City.  Father Allen had long been a supporter of the Knights of Columbus and invited these two gentlemen to attend a meeting of the Holy Name Society of St. Joseph Parish.  The men attending this meeting agreed that a council here would be desirable.

P.J. and Tony went to work.  They signed some new members,   reinstated a few and accepted a few transfers from nearby Council 1111 in  Cape Girardeau, MO.  The Degrees to institute the Council were held and the Council was chartered in December of 1972.  Forty-nine names appear on the Charter.  The Charter was presented to the Council at a banquet held on October 27, 1973 by State Deputy George Sweeney.  By that date, the council had grown to seventy-two members.

Council meetings  in the first few years were held in the basement hall of St. Joseph Church.  By 1976, it was obvious that the church hall was not going to be standing very many more years and the council would need a home.  The St. Joseph Columbus Club was incorporated during the 1976-1977 fiscal year and a search was started for a building or a building site.  After considering three or four building sites and one building, it appeared that the cost would be more than the council could afford.  Just about the time that the Columbus Club members thought they were running out of options, the Good Lord smiled upon them.  One of the council’s elderly members owned a building at 1400 Main Street in Scott City.  This building had been a grocery store for many years and more recently had been a Western Auto Store.  After some negotiating, the deal was made with our Brother Knight and the Council was on the way to a new home.   Many hours of volunteer labor were to be exhausted in the next few months.  Large bathrooms were installed, a kitchen built, walls were knocked out to add doors, clubroom built, almost all by donated labor.  The old grocery store turned out to be a very adequate home for a number of years.  The membership continued to grow and by the mid-1980’s it was once again obvious that the council would need a larger home.  The effort that followed resulted in the beautiful complex that you see here today.

Membership is still growing.  One only has to glance at the beautiful trophy cases in the clubroom to know that this is a very active council in all phases of the Knights of Columbus programming.   St. Joseph Council 6420 is especially proud of the association it has with area parishes.   The Council’s membership is made up of members from St. Joseph – Scott City, St. Augustine – Kelso, St. Lawrence – New Hamburg, St. Ambrose – Chaffee, St. Denis – Benton and several members from nearby Cape Girardeau.  A small part of our history that we are proud of is having the honor of starting the Knights of Columbus State Horseshoe Tournament in 1981.  Little did anyone dream that this would become one of the largest State Council activity programs.  That first gathering drew 54 teams of horseshoe pitchers and another 150 or so family members.  Three classes pitched on 12 sets of pits.

(A special thanks to our past brother KC member, Gene Diebold,  for all his efforts in keeping this valuable history of our council)