Elijah E. Norvell, M. D. While his work as a physician and surgeon at Wynnewood has brought him a substantial position in the profession, Doctor Norvell during his fifteen years of residence in that thriving city, of Southern Oklahoma has found a varied outlet for his energies and is widely known over the state at large. In May, 1914, Doctor Norvell retired from the office of postmaster, to which he had been first appointed by President Roosevelt January 31, 1906, and reappointed by President Taft in February, 1910. On October 6, 1915, Doctor Norvell was elected and installed as grand master of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in the State of Oklahoma. He has taken a very prominent part in fraternal affairs in the new state.

His partner in medical practice is Dr. H. P. Wilson, and they have their offices in the Wilson Building, and both are graduates of the same school of medicine, the medical department of Vanderbilt University, Doctor Norvell being about one year the junior of his partner in professional service.

Elijah E. Norvell was born near Batesville in Independence County, Arkansas, September 6, 1872. A number of generations back his ancestors lived in Sweden. It was by accident that the family was established in America. Doctor Norvell’s grandfather three times removed was a shipwrecked sailor boy and was picked up along the Maryland shore, and thenceforth became identified with this country and founded the family of which Doctor Norvell is a descendant.

The doctor’s parents were W. B. and Sarah A. (Rogers) Norvell. His father was born in Eastern Tennessee at Aartrace in Bedford County in 1848. He was reared in that state, but was married to Miss Rogers near Batesville. Arkansas, where she was born in 1857. In 1894 W. B. Norvell moved to Hillsboro in Hill County, Texas, and from there came to Marietta, Oklahoma, in 1912, where he is still living. His chief occupation has been as a farmer and stock raiser. At Hubbard, Texas, from 1897 to 1902 he filled the office of postmaster under appointment from President McKinley. He is a republican, as is also his son, Doctor Norvell. For many years he has been a deacon in the Baptist Church, and for several terms served as worshipful master in the Masonic fraternity. Doctor Norvell is the oldest of a large family of children. His brother, W. H. Norvell, is a deaf mute, having been graduated from the Deaf Mute Institute at Little Rock, Arkansas, and is now a printer at Marietta, Oklahoma; Fanor is the wife of J. C. Hines, a farmer and stockman at Tussey, Oklahoma; Fannie B. died of typhoid fever at the age of eighteen at Hubbard, Texas; M. G. Norvell is former postmaster of Marietta; Ila is now living with her parents at Marietta and is a stenographer; Lucile is the wife of William H. Stewart, a lumberman at Harlingen, in the extreme Southern Texas; Allie is the wife of Milton Parks, a stockman at Goree, Texas; Marchie, who graduated from the high school at Stamford, Texas, is now a teacher in the public schools of Brownsville in that state; Oscar is assistant bookkeeper in the First National Bank of Marietta.

Elijah E. Norvell acquired his early education in the public schools of Independence County, Arkansas, and spent two years in the North Arkansas Presbyterian College at Batesville. In 1891 he entered the medical department of Vanderbilt University at Nashville, where he graduated M. D., March 26, 1894.

During 1894-96 Doctor Norvell practiced at Bynum in Hill County, Texas, and from that time until 1900 was located at Britton in Ellis County. He came to Wynnewood in 1900, the same year that his partner, Doctor Wilson, located there, and together they have acquired a splendid general practice. Doctor Norvell is.a member of the county and state medical societies and the American Medical Association, served four years as city health officer, and is local surgeon for the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad. He is also a director in the First State Bank of Wynnewood.

While living in Texas, Doctor Norvell served three years as postmaster at Britton, and thus was well qualified for his official duties when he took a similar position at Wynnewood in 1906. Besides the exalted position which he now holds in Oklahoma Odd Fellowship, he is a member of Wynnewood Lodge No. 83, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and of the Encampment Odd Fellows at Guthrie, and the Order of Rebekahs at Wynnewood. He is also affiliated with Wynnewood Lodge No. 40, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and a member of Wynnewood Camp No. 539, Woodmen of the World. In 1906 he represented the Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory for the Woodmen of the World in the convention at Norfolk, Virginia.

In 1895 at Britton, Texas, Doctor Norvell married Miss Ela McGee, daughter of G. W. McGee. Mrs. Norvell died in 1896, leaving one child, Murvin, who is now a sophomore in the Oklahoma State University at Norman. At Alvarado, Texas, in 1897, Doctor Norvell married Miss Ida Wood. Her father was the late W. A. Wood, a farmer. There are two children of this marriage: Lawton, a sophomore in the Wynnewood High School; and Nell, in the seventh grade of the grammar school.