The Earle family : Ralph Earle and his descendants

Gen.] GENEALOGY. 107
Rhode Island, they placed wool-carding machines for the accommodation
of the farmers in the neighborhood, whose home-raised wool
had previously been mostly carded by hand in the family. The fol-
lowing handbill was issued by them at this time :
Elegant Machinery for Card-
'ing Wool by Water,
By the united efforts of the best E?iglish and American Artisans,
PLINY EARLE, & BROTHERS,
JTjIAVE erected Wool Carding Machines, which are
allowed by the best judges, to exceed any thing of the
kind in America. They have placed one set at David
Wadsworth's Waterworks, a little South of the Meet-
inghouse, in Grafton ; one set at the Mills of Eleazar
Ball, in Rutland; one set at Western;* one Machine
at Luke Jillson's Mills in Cumberland, state of Rhode-
Island. The above Machines are on the most improved,
and best approved construction. They are all in actual
operation, and are performing woi-k in the neatest and
best manner, and are under the inspection and general
direction of an English Manufacturer, who has had more
than thirty years experience ; they therefore flatter them-
selves that they shall give general satisfaction to those
who favor them with wool to card.
Leicester, 8th Mo. 28, 1804.
With Paul Whitin and others they were joint owners of the cotton
factory in Northbridge, Mass., which was the nucleus from which
have sprung Whitinsville and all its accessories.
The business of the firm flourished during the war with England.
The prices of cards were greatly enhanced and yielded a large profit.
But the cost of the raw material was likewise much greater than
* Now (1887) Warren.
—