Mr. Stuke was born in New York City on the 23d of February, 1853, of German parentage. He acquired a good public school education. When he was fourteen years of age his parents removed to Guttenberg, N. J., and soon afterward he took up harnessmaking, which he mastered in every detail. In 1870 he went to Utah and thence to Helena, Mont., in the interest of the Union Brewing Company, and while in the West engaged in gulch mining. Subsequently he resumed his trade of harnessmaker, and in 1872 went to Fort Benton, thence to Sioux City, and finally returned to Guttenberg by way of New York. For three years he had entire charge of the harness department of David Jones, the millionaire maltster, returning again to Guttenberg in 1875. In 1879 lie settled in the Town of Union. Hudson County, where he has since resided, and where he was engaged in the harness business for many years, or until the spring of 1897. From 1.580 to 1885 he held a position as custom house inspector. He is now, and has been for several years, actively engaged in the real estate and insurance business in Union Hill, where he has contributed materially to the advancement of various interests and institutions. Mr. Stuke has achieved marked success. Social and popular, a lover of a good story, and a general favorite among his associates, his reputation and honorable standing are the result of his own energetic efforts. He is always ready to encourage, with both time and means, every project which promises good to the community. He takes an active interest in public improvements and in municipal enterprises. In 1892 and again in 1897 he was elected a Justice of the Peace.

He has been for many years an active member of the Foresters of America, of the Royal Arcanum, and of the Royal Society of Good Fellows. He is a free thinker, broad and liberal-minded, earnest in all the relations of life, and a man of strength of character and of unimpeachable integrity, and in the town and county in which he has taken such deep interest he is highly respected and esteemed. On real estate and insurance matters he is a recognized authority.