b. Germany, 1842
d. Milwaukee, 1919

John Brandel came as a ten-year-old to America, presumably with his parents, John and Maria Brandel. He studied theology at North Western College (at Plainfield, Will County, Illinois at that time; later North Central College at Naperville) and was ordained in 1868 as a minister by the Evangelical Association, a Protestant denomination with mostly German-speaking members.  Rev. Brandel served congregations in Beloit (1870), Juda (Green County; 1877), Madison (1880), Milwaukee (1882-83), Madison (1895-99), Oshkosh (1900), and Milwaukee (about 1905-1915). By 1882 he oversaw seven different congregations and was elected Borstehenden Aeltesten [district superintendency], a position he held for 24 years until failing health limited his service to the Milwaukee labor community. He died in 1919 at age 76. Three of his sons graduated from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and the fourth became a bank president; his only daughter was a milliner.

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[Source: WHI Gallery]