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He had the good judgment not only to appreciate but also to take advantages afforded in what is now the vigorous young commonwealth of Oklahoma, and he has become a prominent and successful representative of the oil and gas producing industry in this state. His interests in this line being varied and important. He holds the office of general manager of Savoy Oil Company, with office headquarters at 413 Drew Building, Tulsa. It may further be stated in a preliminary way that both he and his wife are specially prominent and popular factors in the representative social activities of their home city and that Mrs. STROUVELLE , a woman of most gracious personality and of fine attainments, may well take pride in being a lineal representative of one of the staunch families of the Creek Indian Nation, one of the notable five civilized tribes. On his father's farm in Livingston County, Missouri, Charles Edward STROUVELLE was born on the 12th of November, 1872, and he is a member of a family of seven children, all of whom are living and the eldest two, a son and a daughter, having been born in Germany, prior to the immigration of the parents to the United States. Mr. STROUVELLE is a son of Christoph H. and Anna (RUFF) STROUVELLE, both of whom were born and reared in the same section of the Empire of Germany, where their marriage was solemnized and where their first two children were born, as previously noted. In his native land Christoph H. STROUVELLE broadened and gave incisive strength to his mental powers through availing himself of the excellent educational advantages there afforded him, and was able also to develop most effectually his dominant talent along mechanical lines. He there served under most auspicious conditions a thorough apprenticeship to the trade of machinist, and there have been in the United States few men of greater skill and technical knowledge in this line. In 1855 Mr. STOUVELLE came with his wife and two children to America, the voyage having been made on a sailing vessel of the type common to that period and having been of seven weeks duration. The family landed in the port of New York City, where Mr. STROUVELLE readily found employment at his trade and where he remained thus engaged about two years. Thereafter he was employed as an expert artisan at his trade at various places in Ohio, including Cincinnati, Zanesville and Dayton, and it is specially worthy of note that while thus engaged in the Buckeye State he had the distinction of being the first man in the United States to achieve the work of securing a railway-car wheel to an axle by shrinkage instead of fastening the same by the old-time key method. From Ohio Mr. STROUVELLE finally removed with his family to Parkersburg, West Virginia, where he became associated with his brother-in-law, Albert RUFF, in the conducting of a general machine shop and minor manufacturing business. There they continued successful operations until the close of the Civil war, and Mr. STROUVELLE then removed with his family to Missouri, where he purchased and established his residence upon a farm, in Livingston County. He there turned his attention, with characteristic energy and circumspection, to diversified agriculture and the raising of high grade stock, but his exceptional mechanical ability was not long to permit him to remain in this comparative obscurity, for he was soon called upon by the prominent St. Louis firm of Neideringhouse & Company to go to the Missouri metropolis and assume supervision of the installing of a stamp mill to be utilized by this firm in the stamping of tin ware, this having been the first mill of this kind in the United States and the machinery for the same having been manufactured in Germany. It is needless to say that as an expert machinist of broad and varied experience Mr. STROUVELLE successfully completed the installation of the machinery for the new mill, and thereafter he had for some time the active supervision of the plant, which he placed in effective operation. He remained about two years in St. Louis and then returned to his farm, which under his progressive management was developed into one of the finely improved and valuable landed estates of Livingston County, Missouri. He became specially prominent as a breeder of fine horses and high grade cattle and swine, and did much to advance the standard of the live stock industry in that section of the state. Though he has passed the psalmist's span of three score years and ten, his birth having occurred in the year 1829, Mr. STROUVELLE still resides upon and gives a general supervision to his fine farm, though he has lived virtually retired from active labors since 1905, his loved and devoted wife having been summoned to eternal rest in 1900, at the age of sixty-two years. He is a staunch advocate of the principles of the democratic party, has been prominent and influential in community affairs and served for many years as a member of the school board of his district, his personal disinclination alone having kept him from being called to other public offices. The conditions and benignant influences of the old homestead farm on which he was born, compassed the childhood and youth of Charles Edward STROUVELLE, and he was signally favored in being reared in a home of distinctive refinement and high ideals. He duly availed himself of the advantages of the public schools and upon leaving the home farm he promptly entered upon a practical apprenticeship to learn the art and trade of telegraphy, this discipline having been obtained by him in the station and office of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad at Braymer, Caldwell County, Missouri. He soon mastered the intricacies of telegraphic operation and finally was promoted to the position of operator and station agent at Braymer, when twenty years of age. Later he became operator and ticket agent at the Joplin station of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad, and when the line of this road was extended through Indian Territory Mr. STROUVELLE was sent by the company to assume charge of the station at Wetumka, now one of the thriving towns of Hughes County, Oklahoma. He took this position of station agent and telegraph operator in the year 1900, and he reverts with special pleasure and gratitude to this incumbency, since through the same he was fortunate in meeting the gracious young gentlewoman who is now his wife. In September, 1902, Mr. STROUVELLE was transferred by the company to Tulsa, where he continued in service as its efficient and popular station agent until 1905, when he resigned the position. Since that time the major part of his time and attention has been given to the oil and gas industry, in which he has been prominent and successful in development and production enterprise and has acquired large and valuable interests. As stated in the initial paragraph of this article, he is general manager of the Savoy Oil Company, on of the important corporations in the Oklahoma oil and gas fields. Mr. STROUVELLE has not hedged himself in with the functions and confines of self-advancement but has been emphatically and significantly loyal and progressive as a citizen and takes a lively interest in all that touches the civic and material welfare and progress of his home city and state. His political allegiance is given to the democratic party and he is prominently identified with representative social and fraternal organizations. He is past exalted ruler of Tulsa Lodge, No. 926, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and is a member of the executive board of the association that had in charge the erection of the fine Elks' Home in Tulsa. He is affiliated with Tulsa Lodge, No. 71, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, has received, in Oklahoma Consistory, the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Masonry, besides holding membership in Akdar Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, at Tulsa. On the 31st of December, 1900, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. STROUVELLE to Miss Susanne BARNETT, who was born in the Indian Territory, near Okmulgee, and whose parents were blood members of the Creek Indian Nation, both having been born in one of the Southern States, whence they came with others of the Creek nation in Indian Territory, where they passed the remainder of their lives. Mrs. STROUVELLE was doubly orphaned when she was a child of six years, and was adopted by Miss Alice M. ROBERTSON, who was at that time a teacher in the Indian school at Muskogee. To this noble foster-mother Mrs. STROUVELLE pays all honor and filial love, as she recognizes that through Miss Robertson's devotion and liberality she was enabled to gain a liberal education and to advance to her present prominent social position. Mr. STROUVELLE has the distinction of being the first person who as a representative of one of the five civilized tribes of Indians to register application for an authorized allotment of Government land, and his registration is recorded as No. 1 and as a member of the Creek Nation. The home life of Mr. and Mrs. STROUVELLE is one of ideal order and they have four children,-- Charles Edward, Jr., Alice, Anne Isabel, and Jane, concerning whom it has been stated that "All four of these lovely young children have inherited their mother's natural gift for music." In conclusion is consistently entered the following appreciative quotation from the columns of a January 1915 copy of the Tulsa Daily World: "Mrs. Charles Edward STROUVELLE is not only one of musical Tulsa's most gifted pianists but also one of its most cherished personalities. From a musical standpoint, Mrs. STROUVELLE is strictly an Oklahoma product, as she received her training entirely in this state. She is one of the first graduates of Kendall College, having been graduated with honors in that institution in 1900, before its removal from Muskogee to Tulsa. She is a protege of Miss Alice ROBERTSON, of Muskogee, one of the most widely known and best loved women in Oklahoma. Mrs. STROUVELLE is a charter member of the Hyechka Club and has been closely identified with the musical interests of the city ever since there has been anything of musical interest here." Typed for OKGenWeb by Connie Ardrey, October 12, 1998.