Joseph A. Ponwith, Sr., was born in Germany on March 17, 1836, youngest son of Hans
  and Dora 'Wiegman' Ponwith,  both  natives of the old country,  the former of whom died
  there,  leaving seven children,  Mary,  Sophia,  Potuve,  Dora, Christiana,  Elizabeth  and
  Joseph A.   In 1856 the Widow  Ponwith came to America, accompanied by her youngest
  son,  Joseph A.,  and  settled at Buffalo, New York.   The  next spring  Joseph A.  Ponwith
  came to  Minnesota, stopping at Winona, from which place he walked to St. Paul.    After 
  looking  about there a  bit  he came to this part of  the state by boat, seeking a homestead 
  site, and stopped at St. Peter.   By that  time the best land in  the St. Peter neighborhood
  had been  pre-empted  and not  finding anything just  to his liking, he walked  back to St. 
  Peter,  in  the  neighborhood of  which city  he worked  on a farm  for the next five or  six
  months,  at the end of  which time he returned to St. Peter and  some time later bought a
  forty-acre  in Cleveland  township, LeSueur county, where he started farming for himself
  in 1858.   Having no team or  implements other than a grub-hoe and an ax, he started in
  with  these useful implements of agriculture and  his  first crop was raised with a  hoe.  In
  1861  he  married  Henrietta Feldman and  sold  his partly improved  tract of forty acres
  and bought an eighty-acre tract on which not a  stick of timber had been cut and  there he
  started anew to establish a  home.   In 1862, when the Indian troubles  broke out, he and
  his wife were compelled to walk to St. Peter for protection, he not having yet been able to
  secure a team, and he carried their first-born babe all the way. 

  For  some  years  this brave pioneer couple  encountered  many difficulties and overcame
  many hardships, but presently  began to see their way clear and prosperity  began to smile
  on them,  Mr. Ponwith long having been regarded as one of  the most substantial farmers
  in Cleveland township. 

  He is the owner of a fine farm of six hundred acres, well improved with modern buildings,
  and is accounted quite well-to-do.  He removed from the farm in 1897 and resided in St. 
  Peter,  and made his home there until  the  death of  his wife, in 1906, and then returned
  to the  country and  made his home with  his  children.   Mr. Ponwith is a Republican and
  has served  the people of  his neighborhood as a member of the school board and in other 
  useful ways.    He and his wife are earnest members of  the German Lutheran church and
  have  helped to build two churches of that  denomination,  ever having been helpful  in all 
  good works to their  community, being held  in the  highest esteem thereabout.   To them
  six  children have  been  born:   Alvina  (deceased),  Herman,  Emma (deceased),  Henry
  (deceased), Joseph A., Jr., and Martin F. 

  Martin F. Ponwith received his education in the district school in the neighborhood of his
  home in Cleveland township and as a young  man started  farming on a portino of the old
  home, which portion, a well-cultivated  tract of one hundred forty-nine acres, he has own-
  ed since the time of his marriage in 1901, besides which he owns an eighty-acre tract and
  a  forty-acre tract in other sections of the same township.  In connection with his general
  farming  he engages quite  extensively in stock raising  and is  known as a progressive and 
  enterprising  young  farmer, who is doing  well his part in the development of  the natural
  resources of his home neighborhood. 

  In 1901  Martin F. Ponwith was united in marriage to  Ella Davis, daughter of Henry C. 
  Davis and wife,  prominent residents of  the  Cleveland neighborhood,  and to  this union
  two children  were  born, Sadie,  born on  May 17, 1902,  and Alice, October 18, 1904,
  the  mother of  whom died on April 25, 1912.   Mr. Ponwith is a member of the German
  Lutheran  church,  to  the  good  works of  which  he  gives  his  earnest attention.    He is
  a   Republican and has ever given  his  intelligent attention to  the political  affairs of  the
  county, though  never  having been included in the office- seeking class.   He is an active,
  energetic   and  progressive farmer,   and  is  held  in  high  regard  throughout  the entire 
  community.