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JOSEPH M. POSTELLE M. D.
Vol. 3, p. 1317-1318

With offices in the Security Building, Doctor Postelle is engaged in
the general practice of his profession in Oklahoma City and has
secure place as one of the representative physicians and surgeons of
the city and state within whose borders he has maintained his home
since 1900. Further than this he has been in a significant degree one
of the prominent and influential figures in the development and up-
building of Oklahoma City and in the furtherance of the best civic
and material interest of the state at large, with a spirit of loyalty
that is on a parity with his recognized ability and his invincible
integrity of purpose in all of the relations of life.

Doctor Postelle claims the Hoosier State as the place of his
nativity but is a scion of a family early founded in the Southern
states, the American progenitors of the Postelle family having been
three brothers of the name who emigrated from France and established
their residence in North Carolina, where one of the number remained,
another of the three having removed within a short period to
Louisiana, and the third of the number having been a pioneer of the
State of Georgia and the ancestor of Doctor Postelle of this review,
the latter's grandfather having been born in that state and having
there passed his entire life, a man of substance and of sterling
character. The Reynolds family, of which the doctor is a
representative in the maternal line, became one of prominence and
influence in North Carolina several generations ago and
representatives of the name have attained to distinction in public
life, in the promotion of industrial and business interests and in
those things which conserve the higher ideals of human thought and
action, distinctive culture and substantial wealth having
significantly marked the family history. Members of the family were
numbered among the most extensive tobacco-growers in North Carolina
and one of the family is at the present time a representative of the
state in the United States Congress.

Dr. Joseph M. Postelle was born in the City of Lafayette, a county
seat of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, on the 31st day of March, 1865,
and is a son of Jacob and Cathryn (REYNOLDS) Postelle, the former of
whom was born in the State of Georgia, and the latter at Asheville,
North Carolina.

At the Ducktown Academy, Ducktown, Tennessee, Doctor Postelle was
afforded excellent educational advantages of a preliminary order and
after completing a through academic course of study he eventually
determined to prepare himself for the medical profession. With this
laudable ambition he was matriculated in the Baltimore, and in this
institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1894 and
with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. For the ensuing six years he
was engaged in the practice of his profession in his home Village of
Ducktown, Tennessee, and he then decided to cast in his lot with the
progressive citizens of Oklahoma Territory, which was at that time
beginning to put forth vigorous efforts toward the attainment of
statehood. He established his residence in the ambitious young
municipality of Oklahoma City, which offered exceptional
opportunities to a man of his vigor, ability and progressiveness.
Here he has constantly maintained his home since the year 1900 and it
may consistently be said that few men have been more closely,
worthily and effectively concerned with the civic and material
development and up-building of the Oklahoma metropolis and capital.

At the time of coming to Oklahoma Cr. Postelle had so great
confidence in the ultimate importance of the ambitious little city
which he had chosen as his permanent home that he promptly and
vigorously entered into co-operation in its development and up-
building, both by potent influence and by the investment of his
financial means. It would be difficult indeed to designate in detail
the manifold and benignant activities of Dr. Postelle throughout the
aggressive period in which Oklahoma City was being transformed from
little more than a crude western village to a modern city of the most
attractive and metropolitan order. Educational, religious and
governmental progress felt the impetus applied by him, both prior to
and after the admission of Oklahoma to the Union, and it may
consistently be said that he was an important and valued factor in
the promotion and development of practically all measures and
enterprises that tended to conserve and social and material progress
and prosperity of Oklahoma City and the state as well, and is a
valued member of the Oklahoma State Medical Society.

Dr. Postelle is affiliated with every Masonic body in Oklahoma City,
having completed the circle of the York Rite, in which his maximum
affiliation is with the local commandery of Knights Templar, and
having received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted
Scottish Rite, besides being also identified with the Ancient Arabic
Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. Both he and his wife are
zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and in their
home city are active in the various departments of the work of St.
Luke's Church, of this denomination.

At Ducktown, Tennessee, on the 22nd of June, 1887, was solemnized
the marriage of Doctor Postelle to Miss Emma BRAY, who was born and
reared in that state and whose parents, Joseph and Ann (BURROUGHS)
Bray, were born in England. Concerning the children of this union the
following brief data are given: Fred, who was born March 28, 1893,
and who was graduated at the age of nineteen years in the Wentworth
Military Academy, at Lexington, Missouri, is now superintendent of
the Petrolera Martima Oil Company, at Tampico, Mexico; Guy Reynolds,
who was born August 20, 1896, is a member of the class of 1913 in the
Oklahoma Agricultural College, at Stillwater; Ruth, born July 3,
1898, and Cathryn, born October 27, 1902, remain at the parental home
and are students in the public schools of Oklahoma City, the younger
daughter being the only one of the children born after the family
removal to Oklahoma

Typed for OKGenWeb by Charmaine Keith, October 10, 1998.