The Earle family : Ralph Earle and his descendants

^12 THE EARLE FAMILY [Ninth
him methods of study and application which helped them to help
themselves. In church and Sunday-school work he never tired, but
labored with unswerving fidelity, not alone while at home, but dur-
ing the years of his school and business life. In business, too, he
was diligent and vigorous ; and he carried the same force and energy
into the recreations of life, entering the field of sports with all the
zest of youth, even in mature manhood. He approached men with
confidence and readily won their confidence. Not trained in the
commercial world, he seemed intuitively to know the necessity of
promptness and system in all his affairs ; and these cardinal princi-
ples, together with strict integrity and persevering industry, were
the four pillars upon which he reared a successful career.
He attended the academic department of Beloit College during a
part of 1865 and 1866, and in 1869 was for a short time in the sophomore
class of Lawrence University, at Appleton, Wisconsin. He
began to teach in 1S66, at Union Grove, Wisconsin. He remained
there during three school years, in the course of which he was chosen
President of the Racine County Teachers' Association, a position
which he held until he left the county ; and, in the latter part of
1869, was elected Superintendent of Schools for the same county.
He was engaged in educational work, as superintendent or teacher,
until the spring of 1874, when he became interested in the publica-
tion of local illustrated works. One with whom he was engaged in
business writes of him : "Genealogy had a fascination for him that
caused him to work with an enthusiasm which enabled him to
achieve success where others had failed or would fail. His labors in (
this department of literature extended over a large section of country,
embracing portions of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New York,
Tennessee, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. He
took a deep interest in the early history of localities ; and wherever
he went in his researches, he made himself familiar with the charac-
ter and circumstances of the earliest settlers. He rescued fx-om
and caused to spring up,
oblivion the history of hundreds of families ;
in the hearts of their descendants, a reverence for the hardy pioneers
that might otherwise have lain dormant forever. He always had a
helping hand and an encouraging word for his less fortunate associates
in business, and was one of those who do not think it necessary to pull
others down that they may rise."
After his marriage Mrs. Earle immediately became his almost