The Earle family : Ralph Earle and his descendants

Gen.] GENEALOGY. 229
sively engaged in the iron and steel trade than any other in Worcester
County, and he remained in it long after the establishment and
the secured success of his additional business mentioned below.
As related in our sketch of Timothy K. Earle, he was one of the
two original partners of the firm of T. K. Earle & Company, when that
house was first permanently formed. He retired from it a few years
before his decease, and afterward took no active part in business,
although his time was fully occupied in the management of public
and private trusts.
The following account is chiefly taken from the elaborate obituaries
of him which were published in the newspapers :
His public lite began in 1843, as a member of the Board of Selectmen
of the town of Worcester. In 185 1, he was elected a representa-
tive in the State Legislature ; in 1853, a member of the board of
Aldermen of the city of Worcester ; and in 1871, Mayor of the city
of Worcester, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Hon. James
B. Blake. He " always bore the burden and honors of public office
with quiet and unostentatious dignity, and labored with his full
ability to faithfully discharge all public duties and trusts. At the
time when the (U. S.) Government was seeking new methods of
dealing with its wards on the frontier, he was selected, by the Society
of Friends, as one of the Indian Commissioners, to act in connection
with a commission appointed by the President. He personally
visited the fields of their abode, studied their condition and needs,
and pressed his opinions with the vigor of one who knew whereof
he spoke."
" As a member of the State Board of Charities, and, in his later
years, its chairman, he found a place where the innate tendency of
his character, his earnest conviction, clear insight and philanthropic
heart, made him of more value than men of shining talents and rest-
less ambition could have been. He had no theories to defend, no
cumbrous equipment of book-learning or class-prejudice in which to
encase himself against the impressions of the heart—the call of duty
and of reason. He gave himself wholly to the inward voice, following
as that directed, no matter what might be the outward commotion.
This is a high quality, sure to give dignity to the conduct and
opinions of men in whom it appears ; and in Edward Earle it was
tainted neither by self-conceit, nor by any morose, or suspicious, or