Lodi Prepole

Their Story

            Lodi Prepole (Prepoli by birth) was born on April 3, 1891, Genoa, Italy. When he was 27 years old, Prepole emigrated to the United States from Genoa, Italy. Prepole renounced his allegiance to King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy on his naturalization petition, dated May 17, 1918, while he was a soldier at Ft. Screven, Georgia. His petition indicates his parents were Italian.^[1] His WWII draft registration lists his birthplace as Geneva, Italy, and his date of birth as April 3, 1892.^[2] Prepole made his way through Ellis Island in New York to St. David, in Fulton County, Illinois. There, Prepole worked in a position common to Italian immigrants of his time as a coal miner.^[3]

Many Italian immigrants worked in dangerous jobs, like coal mining, to support their families back in Italy. Prepole is listed in his World War I draft card as being single with no family to support.^[4] Prepole worked in the brutal coal mines of early 20th century Illinois to eke out a living.^[5] Daily life as a coal miner was one of back-breaking work in the midst of ever-present danger:

The work of the miners was physically demanding and filled with danger. Gas explosions and rock falls were the biggest threats to the underground workmen, but breathing ailments and aches and pains from working in a crouch position also plagued the miners. They descended into the mine in the morning via the ‘cage,’ an elevator that hauled them and the product of their labor out of the mine. Miners then moved through the roadways to the tunnels to the coal face. Here, working in tunnels four feet high, they undercut the clay and shale from beneath coal or drilled into it to prepare to blast it loose. When the coal was knocked down, they shoveled it into small wooden mine cars. Miners could typically load two to three tons of coal on a good day.^[6]

As an immigrant with few opportunities, Prepole had to endure this rough work in order to survive and earn a living. Perhaps it was this tough existence that enabled Prepole to survive when he was later sent to fight in the First World War.

            Lodi Prepole served the United States in the First World War. After nearly four years of fighting, the German Zimmerman Telegram prompting Mexico to invade the United States finally caused the U.S. to declare war on the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria, and Italy at the start of the war). Though earlier in the war Italy had tried to recall their former citizens to serve in their military, far more Italian-Americans served in the American Expeditionary Force in 1918:

When Italy entered the war in May 1915, the emigrants were called back to their homeland from all over the world to fight the Austrians. Nevertheless, only 80,000 men answered the call from the United States, less than 10% of the target population. Two years later, when it was the U.S. entered the war, more than double served with the American Expeditionary Force. It was an army of barbers, porters, shoemakers, tailors, masons, bakers, and general laborers. For more than 3,000 of them there was no coming back.^[7]

Prepole was one of these Italian Americans who served in the United States Army. Lodi was assigned to 1^st Company War Prison Barracks, Fort McPherson, Georgia as a Prison Guard.

  That Prepole would serve in the U.S. military despite his harsh life as a coal miner in the U.S. speaks to his bravery, loyalty, and perhaps even a love for his new country.

            Lodi Prepole lived out the rest of his life in St. David, Fulton County, Illinois. It was seemingly a quiet life. Lodi Prepoli referenced a friend named Elizabeth Silatto.^[8] In 1950, he was residing in the Illinois Soldiers and Sailors’ Home in Riverside Township, Adams Co., Illinois. He was 58 and had never been married.^[9] He died on October 21, 1957, in a veteran’s hospital, and was buried at the National Cemetery on the Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois.^[10] He leaves behind the legacy of resilience in the face of brutal work and devastating industrial warfare, and loyalty to his newfound home in the United States.

United States, Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940; https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3MS-W77H-7?cc=2968245

Lodi Prepole (1891-1957) – Find a Grave Memorial

^[1] “Lodi Prepoli in the Georgia, U.S., Naturalization Records, 1794-1993,” Ancestry, 2012,; “Lodi Prepole in the U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942,” Ancestry, 2010; “Marseille Population 2022,” World Population Review, accessed July 22, 2022.

^[2] U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 – Ancestry.com

^[3] “Lodi Prepoli in the Georgia, U.S., Naturalization Records, 1794-1993,” Ancestry, 2012, “Laden Prepole in the U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918,” Ancestry, 2005.

^[4] “Laden Prepole in the U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918,” Ancestry, 2005.

^[5] Wayne Hinton, ed., “Deaths in the Coal Mines of Fulton County, Illinois,” Genealogy Trails, accessed July 22, 2022.

^[6] Richard Joyce, “Miners, Mining, and Social Life,” Coal City Public Library District, accessed July 22, 2022.

^[7] “Back Over There The Story of the U.S. Italian Immigrant Soldiers of WWI,” World War I Centennial, accessed July 22, 2022.

^[8] “Lodi Prepole in the U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942,” Ancestry, 2010.

^[9] United States Census, 1950: Adams. Census Records 1950 • FamilySearch

^[10] “Prepole,” Iowa City Press-Citizen, October 23, 1957, p. 18.