Charles W. Pennel. One of the most reliable and progressive of the younger members of the Washington County bar, who stands high in professional ability and as a man of broad business and financial judgment, is Charles W. Pennel, of Bartlesville, president of the Buzz Oil Company, and an active factor in civic and political circles. Mr. Pennel was born at Peru, Chautauqua County, Kansas, March 15, 1880, and is a son of S. W. and Almyra (Jones) Pennel.

S. W. Pennel was born at Taylorville, North Carolina, May 4, 1845, and was a mere youth when he enlisted for service in the Confederate army during the Civil war, in which he served four years as a private in a North Carolina regiment, being with General Dee at the time of his surrender. After the war he moved to Leavenworth, Kansas, where he received an appointment under President Grant to assist the Osage Indians in their removal from Kansas to Indian Territory, where he was placed in charge of the Osage Reservation. In that capacity he rendered invaluable services in teaching the Government’s wards how to farm, assisting them in raising the first crop of wheat grown in Indian Territory. While thus engaged he met and married Almyra Jones, who was born at Dows, Iowa, October 12, 1847, educated well in her native state, and at the time of their marriage, in 1873, a teacher in the Government Indian schools. Following their marriage they purchased a farm one-quarter of a mile across the Kansas line, where they have since resided, Mr. Pennel being engaged in farming and raising stock. He has been prominent in local affairs and is known as one of the influential men of his community. There were four sons and three daughters in the family: R. L., postmaster of Lewiston, Idaho; Charles W., of this notice; Maude, who is the wife of John W. Oaks, of Peru, Kansas; Mollie, who is the wife of W. E. Green, of Okmulgee, Oklahoma; G. C., an attorney of Nezperce, Idaho; T. F., who is engaged in the oil business and resides with his parents; and Jennie, who is the wife of Willard Hills, of Peru, Kansas.

Charles W. Pennel attended the country schools of Kansas, after leaving which he taught school in his home district for one term. In 1900 he entered the State Normal School, at Emporia, Kansas, from which he was graduated in 1902, and in that year became superintendent of schools at Moline, Kansas, a capacity in which he acted for two years. In the meantime he had applied himself to the study of law, and in 1904 entered the Valparaiso (Indiana) Law School, where he was graduated in 1906, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws, and at once settled at Bartlesville, Oklahoma, where he has since continued in a general law practice. He has personally represented a number of large interests in important litigation during the last few years, and is now an active and successful practitioner. In addition to his practice, Mr. Pennel is largely interested in the oil business, and at present is president of the Buzz Oil Company. He is a democrat in his political views and has taken an active part in the movements of his party during the past several years. His religious connection is with the Methodist Episcopal Church. Aside from the organizations of his profession, Mr. Pennel belongs to the local lodge of the Masonic order and to the Bartlesville Gun Club.

On June 11, 1911, Mr. Pennel was married to Miss Jennie Saxon, a native of Chautauqua County, New York.