Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920

Biography of Lucy (Goodell) Struble, 1868-1920

By Lindsey Vickers, student, Michigan State University

Lucy Goodell Struble was born on May 28, 1868 in Chandlerville, Illinois. Her parents were John H. Goodell and Harriet Abigail Sweall Goodell. She was the oldest of five siblings. She attended Jacksonville High School and the Jacksonville Female Academy. She taught in the public school and was a supervisor and a teacher of the Deaf and Dumb School at Jacksonville. The school would eventually become the Illinois School for the Deaf in 1903. She met Andrew Struble while at the school. She gave up her work to take a nurse's training course at Mercy Hospital in Chicago that she might be a "better companion and help-mate" to her future husband. The two married June 9, 1897 in Cass, Illinois. They had three sons, William, George, and Phillip.

Andrew received his degree from the medical school of Northwestern University and did post-graduate work at Tulane University in New Orleans and at the Chicago School of Optometry. He practiced in Sheldon, Iowa, but soon the couple moved to Inwood, Iowa, where both of their children were born. In 1909, the family moved to Oklahoma where Struble's husband continued practicing medicine in Pauls Valley.

Struble was interested in higher education for women and child welfare, always ready to assist the cause for prohibition and women's right to vote. While living in Oklahoma, she was active in a number of women's clubs and organizations. She was a member of the Alternate Saturday Club and co-founded the Pauls Valley Women's Study Club in 1911, part of the Oklahoma State Federation of Women's Clubs. She served as its secretary and vice president. Struble was interested in civic work and served in the Pauls Valley First Methodist Church as a Sunday school teacher among other activities. An ardent admirer of Frances E. Willard and Susan B. Anthony, in 1913 Struble served as the recording secretary for the Equal State Suffrage Association of Oklahoma (later the Oklahoma Women's Suffrage Association, a NAWSA chapter). She also held suffrage meetings in her home and attended local and state conventions.

In 1916 Andrew's practice moved to Petersburg, Illinois. In 1917 the family moved again to Glasco, Kansas, where Dr. Struble purchased the practice of Dr. Charles Stein and he continued medical practice for more than thirty years. She remained active in social circles, a member of the Sunflower Study Club and the Methodist Epworth League.

Lucy G. Struble passed away March 22, 1920 at the age of 51 at her home in Glasco, Kansas. She had a brief attack of pneumonia. Her obituary includes this quote that speaks eloquently of her ideals: "I would rather be a beggar and dwell in an attic, than be a king who did not love books. Believe in your mission, greet life with a cheer; there's always big work to do, and that's why we're here."

Sources:

Pauls Valley Democrat (Pauls Valley, Oklahoma), 8 April 1920; "Dr. Andrew Struble" U.S. Find-A-Grave.com Accessed on 7 May 2020; Oklahoma City Daily Pointer (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), 8 June 1910; U.S. Federal Census, 1920, Glasco, Cloud County, Kansas; Illinois, Marriage Index, 1860-1920. Ancestry.com Accessed on 7 May 2020; News Capital and Democrat (McAlester, Oklahoma), 9 October 1913; The Sun (Glasco, Kansas), 25 March 1920; The Sun (Glasco, Kansas), 1 April 1920; Pauls Valley Enterprise and Valley News (Pauls Valley, Oklahoma), 4 April 1912, 23 December 1915, and 8 April 1920; "Lucy Goodell Struble" U.S. Find-A-Grave.com. Accessed on 7 May 2020; Kyla Hurt, "A Historical View of Illinois School for the Deaf," Accessed on 8 May 2020.

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