 Alexander Wol was the name of one of the southern Russian villages from which some of the Mennonites came. When immigrant houses were built here, a church was built nearby which carried the village name. The Alexander Wol Mennonite Church is still active in Gossel today. The city was named after Captain Kurt von Gossel, who went down with his ship after it was rammed in the English Channel. Almost all of the original population of Gossel was Mennonite.