Adolph Joseph Kranawetter was born September 10, 1878 in the northern part of Cape Girardeau County in Missouri to Joseph Kranawetter and Ernstine Ruehling-Kranawetter. He was the fourth of nine children in the Kranawetter family. Adolph was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells.

At age 29, Adolph married Pauline Wittschieben (age 22) on May 10, 1908 in Uniontown, MO with pastor O.R. Hueschen presiding. After their marriage they moved near Neely's Landing in Cape County. There, Adolph rented farmland and worked as a farmer.

Adolph and Pauline would have six children together: Augusta Irene (1909-1990), Cora Edna (1913-1987), Joseph Claus (1915-1971), Rudolph Reinhold (1919-2003), Herbert W (1925-2008), and another daughter that died before she turned two years old.

In 1916, after their first two children were born, the owner of the farmland kicked the Kranawetter's off the property because Adolph had developed epilepsy and he suffered from seizures. Adolph purchased 40 acres of land near Pocahontas and so the family moved there and lived in a log cabin that was on the property.

Without much money for proper medication, Adolph's father had been sending the family money to help with expenses. The oldest child, Augusta Irene got a job in St. Louis and had also been sending money home, but was not enough.

By 1930, after continuing to suffer from problems with epilepsy, Joseph was sent by his family to a mental health facility in Farmington, Missouri. Just a few months later, on January 25, 1931 Adolph Joseph Kranawetter died at the age of 52 from an infection caused by an arm injury he sustained during an epileptic fit. He was buried in Zion Lutheran Cemetery in Pocahontas, Missouri.

His wife would pass away just three years later at the age of 47. She was also buried in Zion Lutheran Cemetery near her Adolph.

Biographical summary written by Jonathan Willweber, but historical information obtained from research provided by Warren Schmidt @ lutheranmuseum.com