"Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana" pgs. 593-595
1903, B.F. Bowen, Logansport, IN

GEORGE W. EARL

It is always pleasant and profitable to contemplate the career of a man who has made a success of life and won the honor and respect of his fellow citizens. Such is the record of the well-known farmer whose name holds this sketch, than whom a more whole-souled or popular man it would be difficult to find within the limits of the township where he has his home. Charles Earl, one of the old settlers of Union Township, was born to John and Mary (Earl) Earl in Holwin (Howland - JH) Township,Trumball County, Ohio, July 4, 1819. John Earl the subject's grandfather was a native of England, while his grandmother, Susanna Ray, was a native of Germany. Both the Earl and Ray families emigrated from their mother countries and settled in Pennsylvania, where John Earl and Susanna Ray fell in love and were married. It was here that John Earl, the father of Charles, spent his boyhood and here also that he married his second cousin, Mary Earl. Shortly after their marriage sixteen children were born, eight sons and eight daughters, two of whom are living, William of Markle Indiana who was the sixteenth child and Charles Earl was the fourteenth child of the family and was reared on his father's farm in Ohio. As a boy, he showed a fondness for horses and has owned some fine animals in his day, one of which had a mark of 2:15. Neglecting his early education, he worked on his father's farm until his marriage to miss Margaret A. Cartwright of Trumball, Ohio. In 1850 they came to Wells County, settling on the farm in Jefferson Township now occupied by their son George, where they lived and reared their family. They were the parents of ten children; James married to Matilda McAffee; John, married to Eliza Confer, lives in Union Township; Henry the husband of Martha Byrd; Freeman whose wife was Rebecca Robinson, lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana; George W. whose biography appears in another place; Robert deceased; Charles, living in the west; Mary who is the wife of William Robinson; Stephen whose biography appears later; and Sarah the wife of Chester Greer, who lives in Allen County, Indiana. The wife of Charles Earl died in December 1892, since which time he has been living with his children, spending most of the time with his son, S.D. Earl. Stephen Earl was born in 1864 and received his early education in the district schools of Jefferson Township. He stayed at home with his parents until he was twenty-one years old and was married December 19, 1887 to Henriette Crow, who was born in Allen County, Indiana in 1865, her parents being natives of Ohio. Mr. Earl bought his present farm in 1895 and has continued to reside there since. He is the father of four children: Hazel born May 15 1892; Hershell, September 1894; Bernell, July 1897 and Bertha, November 1900; he is also the guardian of Jennie Feighner, a child whom he has raised. Being members of the United Brethren Church, Mr. and Mrs. Earl are held in high esteem by their ancestors. In politics, he is one of the substantial Democrats of Union Township. Among the old families of Jefferson Township and Wells County is the Earl family as a representative of which George W. Earl is socially and politically prominent. He is the son of Charles and Margaret Cartwright Earl and was born August 16, 1855, in Jefferson Township, Wells County, Indiana from Trumball County Ohio in 1853 and purchased the quarter section in Jefferson Township, where he lived until he had reared his family of ten children. He has reached the advanced age of eighty-three years and is at present living with his son in Union Township. George W. Earl was the fifth of ten children and was reared on the farm he now occupies. He attended the district school and received a fair education, all that could be obtained at that time. When he was twenty-one years old, he, with his brother, rented the old farm which they cultivated jointly. October 23, 1879 he was married to Miss Mary Hatfield, a daughter of John and Clarena (Mills) Hatfield and born in Ohio, September 10, 1858. The subject bought part of the old Earl farm and in 1887 built the present brick mansion, consisting of nine rooms and in 1894 he built a large barn, thirty-six by eighty-two feet in size. He now owns one of the finest and best improved farms in Jefferson Township, consisting of one hundred and twenty acres. He started out in life poor, but by successful management has succeeded in reaching a comfortable position, being now worth at least eight thousand dollars.