When World War I started in 1914, Poland was divided between the empires of Prussia, Austria, and Russia. In 1917, a Polish National Committee organized regiments of Polish-American men to fight under a Polish flag in Europe, and forty-eight recruiting centers were established in the U.S., including one in Portage County. Through the efforts of Polish patriots, an independent Polish state was included in President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points speech to end the war in 1918. Nearly 300 men from Portage County, northern Wisconsin, and Michigan were recruited, with the local effort led by S.H. Worzalla, Joseph Worzalla, J.W. Przewlocki, and Jacob Woyak. The community embraced Polish nationalism with speeches, send-off dinners, and benefit dances. After Armistice on November 11, 1918, the Polish Army men stayed on to establish borders for the newly reborn country of Poland, fighting in territorial wars against the bordering countries of Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Silesia, and Galicia. When the army was demobilized in March 1920, troops either stayed in Poland or returned to America.