The Earle family : Ralph Earle and his descendants

114 THE EARLE FAMILY [Sixth
He was one of the original members and founders of the American
Medical Association, the Association of Medical Superintendents of
American Institutions for the Insane, the New York Academy of
Medicine, and the New England Psychological Society. He was
the first president of the association last mentioned, and president of
the Association of Superintendents in 1884-85. He is a member of
various other societies.
In 1S63 he was appointed Professor of Materia Medica and
Psychology in the Berkshire Medical Institute, at Pittsfield, Mass.,
but, after delivering one course of lectures, resigned the office in
consequence of his appointment to the Northampton hospital.
He was one of the medical experts summoned to the trial of
Charles J. Guiteau, for the murder of President Garfield. After an
attendance of one week his health gave way and he was obliged to
leave ; but he approved, and still approves, the verdict which held
the prisoner responsible for the homicide.
[356-2] . Jonah6 Earle 'Robert ( £ Robert, °< Ralph,,3 William, 2
Ralph 1
), son of Robert and Sarah (Hunt) Earle, b. Aug.
10, 1765, in Leicester, Mass. ; m. Elizabeth (d. Nov. 5,
1854), dau. of Amos Southgate, of Leicester ;
1846.
d. Jan. 21,
He learned the trade of cabinet-maker, and about 1789 went to
New York city to find employment. While there he had the small-
pox, having been inoculated for it. When his brother Plinv engaged
to make the card clothing for Samuel Slater, he returned, joined him
in the work, and thenceforward was one of the firm of Pliny Earle
& Brothers during its whole existence. His mechanical ingenuity
and skill were not inferior to those of his brother Pliny, and when,
in 1802, the manufacture of carding-machines was added to the origi-
nal business, he took charge of that department.
He owned, lived and died upon the farm which had belonged to
Nathaniel Potter, one of the earliest settlers of Leicester. It is now
the site of Mannville, and his dwelling-house, remodelled, is the
boarding-house of that village, and stands in the northeast corner of
Earle and Mannville streets. The factory in which the carding-
machines were made was on the south side of the road, ten or fifteen
rods southeast of his residence. It has been converted into a dwell-
ing-house.