After the civil war, his family moved to Kansas where Shartel attended public schools.

He started teaching at seventeen and graduated from Kansas Agricultural College in 1884.

After graduation he studied law in Topeka and passed the Kansas Bar in 1886.

He married Effie Woods on March 24, 1888, and they had two sons: Burke and Kent.

By 1902, he joined Anton H. Classen to found the Oklahoma Railway Company and the company constructed transit lines around Oklahoma City and surrounding towns.