Adell, WI

Adell is a Sheboygan County village that grew around a railroad depot. Settlement began in 1848 after the tracks reached the area, and Christian Gersmehl laid out the original streets and lots on part of his 160-acre farm. The village was first called Sherman Station, after the depot and the surrounding Town of Sherman. When a post office was built in 1890, the name changed to Adell. The village incorporated in 1918.

Early Adell had the full lineup of a small depot community: the American Hotel, two livery stables, a blacksmith, a furniture store, a wagon and plow maker, a preserves manufacturer, and Adell State Bank. Today the village sits along Wisconsin Highway 57, surrounded by the rural towns of Sherman and Lyndon. The 2020 census counted 498 residents. The depot is gone from the center of daily life, but the street plan, business names, and village location still reflect the railroad that first made Adell a place of its own.