Dr. Charles W. Vowell, a leading representative of the medical fraternity of Washington County, has followed his profession in Porum since 1906 and his pronounced ability has won for him an extensive practice. He was born in Collinsville, Grayson County, Texas, in January, 1870, and is a son of James J. and Josephine (Choate) Vowell, both of whom were natives of Missouri. The father was a veteran of the Civil war, serving for three years with a Missouri regiment as a member of the Confederate army under General Robert E. Lee. He devoted his life to the occupation of farming and in 1865, following the close of the war, he went to Texas, where he purchased land, on which he engaged in the raising of cattle until 1916, when he retired from active business pursuits and is now residing at Temple, Oklahoma. The mother passed away in December, 1874.
Dr. Vowell obtained his preliminary education in the public schools of Collinsville, Texas, and then became a student in the Memphis Hospital Medical College at Memphis, Tennessee, from which he was graduated with the class of 1892. He at once entered upon the work of his profession, going to Belcher, Texas, where for two years he maintained an office, and then came to Oklahoma, first locating at Wynne Wood, near Oklahoma City, there residing for four years, or until 1898. He next went to Webbers Falls, Muskogee County, where he remained until 1906, and then came to Porum, which had been founded the previous year. He has since remained a resident of the town and in the intervening period has built up a large practice, his professional services being in constant demand. He has never regarded his professional education as completed with the termination of his college course but has remained throughout his life a close and discriminating student of the science of medicine, and that his knowledge is broad and his judgment sound is indicated by the excellent results which follow his ministrations to the sick. He also has agricultural interests, being the owner of three good farms near Porum, in Muskogee County, which he rents at a profitable figure.
In March, 1901, Dr. Vowell was united in marriage to Miss Lena Carlisle, and they have become the parents of two sons: Carlisle, who was born February 17, 1904; and S. Owen, born July 18, 1906. The Doctor gives his political allegiance to the Democratic Party, and his religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, while his fraternal connections are with the Knights of Pythias, the Woodmen of the World and the Yeomen. He keeps in touch with the onward march of the profession through his membership in the Muskogee County and Oklahoma State Medical Societies and the American Medical Association. Progress has ever been his watchword, and he utilizes every possible opportunity to promote his knowledge and increase his efficiency, gaining the skill that brings to his work the utmost possibility of accuracy in results.