The Podoll Family

Contributed by Brian Podoll

My great-grandad was Ernest Podoll, the eldest of his surviving brothers in that generation and was illiterate. Despite 
that drawback, he was sort of a fill-in lay preacher for their E.U.B. church by Lawrence.

His next brother was Adolph Podoll and he would've been about 30 in 1897, when he was elected as a New Chester town supervisor. 
Adolph Podoll was also supposed to be among the founding members of the Grand Marsh State Bank by 1913.

Ernst's third brother Ferd(inand) Podoll might have been at home in New Chester yet, but he married at Randolph, WI by the 
turn of the century. Ferd would have been about 24 by 1897. Rob(ert) Podoll was the youngest and only Wisconsin-born, but 
he would've been only about 20 at that time. 

It actually took Ernest and Adolph Podoll 46 years to officially become American citizens, after World War I. Ferd Podoll 
gained his naturalization at Randolph by 1915, before we entered the war. Their father, Martin Podoll, died at age 40 from 
"consumption" at the village of Marquette in Green Lake County in December 1876, a mere 3 � years after coming over here 
and an 8-year old son, August "Padol," died 2 months after Martin, in February 1877. In fact, Martin "Podoal" was the 5th 
recorded death in Green Lake County. Rob Podoll was born 8 months after his father's death, on 4 July 1877! The widowed 
mother, Emilie (Wolff) Podoll, never remarried and moved her 4 surviving sons (of 9 children overall) to New Chester by 1882.

Emilie Podoll and her 4 sons lived right on the Adams side of the county line in New Chester and Ernest Podoll had some land 
in Westfield Township and once owned the Western Addition to Westfield village. He sold it to his youngest brother, Rob, around 
the turn of the century.

In any event, Ernest, Adolph, and Ferd were all under the mistaken idea that their father had already "taken out his second 
papers" before his death so these guys were incorrectly voting in elections by the time they were each 21. Ferd was on the 
Randolph School Board in 1915, when he straightened out his citizenship. Ernest and their 76-year old mother, Emilie (Wolff) 
Podoll (who could sign her own name) and probably Adolph all had to fill out Alien Registration photo cards with their thumb 
prints. Ernest, even his American-born 2nd wife Mary (Werner) Podoll, and Emilie all did so at Westfield. Ernest tried and 
signed his own name, but it looks like it was very difficult, though he was said to have practiced at the kitchen table.

Ernst Podoll was 10 years old, when they came over. In fact, in March 1897, his first wife and my great-grandmother, Bertha 
(Lala/"Lall") died 2 days after a stillborn second son. Bertha was only 35. She comes from my 1/16 Polish Catholic lineage, 
that seemed plagued with misfortune in old County Filehne, Province Posen, Prussia. Bertha's mother and stepfather, Caroline 
(Sandow) and Carl Lieske, and her uncle Ludwig Sandow, all lived near Lawrence in Westfield Township. Like my other paternal 
great-grandparents at Springfield Township in Marquette County, Gustav and Ottilie (Duesterhoeft) Stelter from County Kolmar 
in Province Posen; the Podolls, Sandows, and Lieskes were all Low German-speaking Protestants.

Ernest, Adolph, and mother Emilie were all still considered German subjects until nearly a year after World War I 
ended. Ernest and Adolph Podoll gained naturalization that September 1919, but it appears that Emilie never did. Emilie "Amelia", 
Adolph (who lived to age 96!), and Rob are all buried at New Chester, "Earnest" (as it is on his stone) with his second wife 
at Lawrence.

The photo is of my great-grandad Ernest O. Podoll, taken for his Alien Registration document of 23 Feb 1918 at Westfield. 
Ernest Podoll was age 55 on this picture, born at Radwonke, County Kolmar, Province Posen, Prussia on 13 Oct 1862. My Podoll 
ancestry dates back to my likely 6th-great-grandfather, a cottager named Michel Podoll known at the village of (Alt-)Beelitz, 
County Friedeberg/Neumark, Province Brandenburg in 1718/1719. His likely descendants were part of an eastward migration of 
Prussian military veteran colonists along the Netze River valley in northern Posen, during the first two decades of the 19th 
Century.


If you think you have found a family member here or wish to ask the contributor a question, send Brian an e-mail here




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