The Earle family : Ralph Earle and his descendants

Gen.] GENEALOGY. 335
Their children were :
3051-1. Bessie Gillmer, b. July 15, 1871.
3052-2. Roland Gillmer, b. Sept. 16, 1873.
[1728-3]. Harry s L. Earle (Daniel? Syhanus, 6 Thomasf>
Robert,* Ralph** William? Ralph 1
), son of Daniel and
Adeline (Kellogg) Earle, b. Nov. 5, 1854, i*1 Newton
Falls, Ohio ; m. March 4, 1876, Ella Z. Pratt, of Otsego,
Mich. ;
lives in Minneapolis, Minn.
Having completed the Union School course in his native place he
removed with his father's family to Plainwell, Mich., in the spring
of 1870. It was his early desire to obtain a collegiate education ;
but, feeling that his father, while establishing himself in practice in a
new place, could not afford to give him that advantage, and having
some independence of spirit, he obtained the position of bookkeeper
and clerk in a clothing store in Plainwell. In 1871, he learned
telegraphy in the office in that town; in 1872, became telegraph
operator and clerk in the office of the Lake Shore and Michigan
Southern Railway Company at Allegan, Mich. ; and in 1873 was
promoted to the agency for the same road at Otsego, Mich., where
he remained until the spring of 1880, when he accepted a position as
press report operator for the Western Union Telegraph Company at
Kalamazoo, Mich. Eighteen months afterwards he was promoted
to the management of the Western Union office at East Saginaw,
Mich., a place which, after holding it a year, he resigned, in consequence
of impairment of health by close confinement.
Advised by medical counsel to seek a home farther west, and
having, by night and morning study, acquired some proficiency in
stenography, he accepted in March, 1883, a situation as bookkeeper
and stenographer of the Fargo, Dakota, branch office of D. M.
Osborne & Co., manufacturers of harvesting machines. In the fol-
lowing November he was made manager of the business and remained
in charge of it until the spring of 1S86, when he received and accepted
the offer of the position of manager of the Minneapolis branch office
of the Pitts Agricultural Works, of Buffalo, N. Y., a position he now
occupies. In the pi'osecution of his duties in the last two positions,
he has travelled extensively in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Dakota and
Montana.