Contributed by Charlene Saunders:
ADAMS EARL, of La Fayette, Indiana, born April 20, 1819, in Fairfield
County, Ohio, was the youngest but one of a family of fifteen children
of NEHEMIAH and REBECCA EARL. His father, NEHEMIAH EARL, was one of
eight sons of DANIEL EARL, and moved with his father from Washington
County, New York, and settled at Onondaga Hollow, New York, in the year
1792. His father, DANIEL EARL, was of a large and influential family of
Massachusetts origin, and died in Marcellus, New York, in 1817, aged
eighty-eight years. The EARL family were unusually large men, and over
six feet in height.
NEHEMIAH EARL was born September 10, 1771, and died in 1839 in Crawford
County, Ohio. ADAMS EARL's mother, REBECCA DANFORTH EARL, was a
daughter of MAJOR ASA DANFORTH, who was the pioneer of Onondaga County,
New York. MAJOR DANFORTH and family moved from Worcester,
Massachusetts, after the close of the war, in 1783, to Mayfield, in the
lower part of Montgomery County, New York, where he resided but a few
years. Early in May, MAJOR ASA DANFORTH with his family embarked at
Mayfield, in flat-bottomed boats, and afterward landed at the mouth of
Onondaga Creek, where they settled a little south of Onondaga Hollow,
New York, May 22, 1788. Upon his arrival at Onondaga he found his
family the only white persons in the country. The family of MAJOR
DANFORTH were treated with great kindness by the head civil chief of the
Onondaga Indians, notwithstanding which they were subjected to many
privations, and at times were much alarmed for their personal safety
because of the vindictive spirit manifested by some of the Indians,
generally occasioned by the free use of intoxicating drinks.
MAJOR ASA DANFORTH was born at Worcester, Massachusetts, July 6, 1746,
and died at his resident at Onondaga Hollow, September 2, 1818, in the
seventy-third year of his age. He married HANNAH WHEELER, of
Brookfield, Massachusetts, in the fifteenth year of her age. They had
five children. REBECCA DANFORTH EARL was born in Massachusetts, January
3, 1777, and died in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, in 1844. She was
marrried to NEHEMIAH EARL abut 1794 at Onondaga Hollow, New York. In
1814 he moved his family to Jamesville, Ohio, and after residing there
two and a half years he moved to Fairfield County, Ohio, and in August,
1819, moved to Sandusky, Crawford County, Ohio.
ADAMS EARL passed his younger days upon the farm, and during the winter
of 1836-'37 came with his parents to Tippecanoe County, Indiana,
settling on the Wea Plains. He was employed in breaking prairie and
farming. In 1840 he commenced constructing flat-boats on the Wabash
River, loading them with products from the Wea Plains and taking them to
New Orleans. In 1848 he moved to La Fayette, Indiana, and started in a
general merchandise business with JAMES G. CARNAHAN, under the firm name
of Carnahan & Earl. He disposed of his interest to his partner in 1853,
and embarked in the wholesale grocery business. The same year in
company with HENRY JACOBS, of Rainsville, Warren County, Indiana, he
conducted a general merchandise store for several years. Near the close
of that year (1853) he formed a partnership with MOSES FOWLER in the
wholesale grocery trade, under the name of Fowler & Earl. In 1857 they
added to their business that of banking, opening the Indiana Bank, which
was afterward merged into the La Fayette Branch of the State of Indiana,
afterward known as the National State Bank of La Fayette.
During the above period MR. EARL continued as the active manager of the
wholesale grocery house. In 1857 HENRY C. BRUCE was admitted as
partner, under the style of Fowler, Earl & Bruce, which firm continued
until 1860, when MR. EARL purchased the other interests and associated
with himself WILLIAM H. HATCHER, of La Fayette, the firm being Earl &
Hatcher. Up to this time the grocery business had been conducted in
rooms in the Purdue block, on Second, corner of Columbus street, but it
had now become so large they had to obtain more space. Accordingly, in
1865, they erected the large stone-front building known as the Earl &
Hatcher block, on Third, corner of South street, and early in 1866 moved
their stock and office into it. In February, 1869, MR. HATCHER died,
and in April following CHARLES W. BANGS, of La Fayette, was admitted as
partner, the firm name becoming Adams Earl & Co. In 1876 MORELL J.
EARL, the only son of ADAMS EARL, was admitted into the house, and
continued an active member until his death, June 28, 1879.
In 1860 MR. EARL engaged with others as J.H. Telford & Co., in pork and
beef packing, and built a spacious packing-house in La Fayette. They
continued for six years, doing a large trade. In 1862 MR. EARL was a
partner in the firm of Culbertson, Blair & Co., of Chicago, Illinois,
and engaged in a general commission business and in packing pork and
beef. They built a large packinghouse in that city and carried on an
extensive and profitable trade until the dissolution of the partnership
in 1867. In 1862 MESSRS. EARL and HATCHER became associated with A.J.
CARNAHAN, under the firm name of Carnahan, Earl & Co., in the wholesale
boot and shoe trade, which they continued for three years; and in the
same year (1862) MR. EARL became a member of the wholesale dry goods
house of Curtis, Earl & Co. continuing in it until 1869, when he
disposed of his interest to this partners.
In 1869 an enterprise ws commenced by La Fayette citizens to secure an
east and west railroad, running from Muncie, Indiana, through La
Fayette, to Bloomington, Illinois. From its first inception MR. EARL
took and active interest in the project. At the first meeting he was
elected a director of the company, and by the directors he was elected
president. He served in this capacity three years, during which time
the western division of the road was completed and put in operation.
This road is no part of the Lake Erie & Western line. In 1870 the
Cincinnati, La Fayette & Chicago Railraodd Company was organized to
construct and operate a railroad from La Fayette to Kankakee, Illinois,
there to connect with the Illinois Central for Chicago. This road was
owned by ADAMS EARL, MOSES FOWLER and GUSTAVUS RICKER, MR. EARL being
president, general manager and builder. This section of railroad is now
a part of the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis & Chicago Railroad,
and is known as the Kankakee line, the shortest line to Chicago.
In 1877, by purchasing MR. FOWLER's bonds and stock, MR. EARL secured a
controlling interest in the property, and to its management gave his
careful and constant attention. In November, 1879, MR. EARL disposed of
his controlling interest in this property to a party of Boston
capitalists, and retired from his management. This road crosses the
Kankakee River at Waldron, Illinois, where in 1874 MR. EARL, in company
with others, constructed large buildings for the storage of 35,000 tons
of ice. This was a joint stock company, called the Kankakee Crystal Ice
Company, of which MR. EARL was president.
ADAMS EARL has always been engaged in farming, and in the rearing of
livestock, on a very large scale. In 1862, in company with MOSES
FOWLER, he purchased about 36,000 acres of land in Benton County,
Indiana, and improved it with buildings, fences, grain fields and
pastures. Upon this tract of land they grazed annually from 2,000 to
4,000 head of cattle. The rapid development of Benton County and the
large interests of MESSRS. EARL and FOWLER there, induced them to take
steps toward the removal of the county seat from Oxford, in the southern
part, to the town of Fowler, on the railroad, and in the geographical
center of the county. By a vote of the citizens it was decided to make
the change, and MESSRS. EARL and FOWLER donated to the county $40,000
for the erection of a new court-house. In 1874 they divided their
Benton County land, MR. FOWLER taking that portion lying south, west,
adjoining a large body of land owned by MESSRS. EARL and A.D. RAUB.
In 1876 JOSEPH HIXSON and MR. RAUB became partners of MR. EARL in the
firm of Hixson, Raub & Earl, in farming and handling stock, and in the
same year MESSRS. EARL and RAUB engaged in the general merchandise and
grain business at Earl Park, in Benton Conty, where they built a large
elevator, store-room and cribs for the storage of corn. Earl Park is
located on the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis & chicago Railroad,
near the north part of MR. EARL's farm, and was laid out and owned
jointly by MESSRS. EARL and RAUB. Midway betwen the towns of Fowler and
Earl Park, on the railroad and near the center of his farm, MR. EARL
built a large number of cribs and other buildings for the storage and
handling of grain, and at this point has ample side-track and facilities
for loading and unloading cars. This Benton County farm is well
improved, and all under cultivation, in pasturage, meadow and grain
fields, and is worked by forty tenants.
MR. EARL also has a large farm on the Wea Plains, four miles from La
Fayette, known as Shadeland Farm. During all his life he has had
extensive dealings in cattle. For nearly fifteen years he had in Benton
County a breeding herd of fine short-horn cattle. In the feeding of
steers for market his attention was attracted to the remarkable
constitution and easy fattening qualities of the Hereford cattle, as
shown by the few steers he had in the bunches he was feeding. Upon
further investigation he ascertained that these qualities were
characteristic of the breed. Eventually he sold out all his short-horns
and made a trip to England in 1880, where he selected his first lot of
Herefords. This first importation has been followed up each year. One
year he had 130 head come over at one time. MR. EARL is credited with
having imported the best Herefords ever brought to this country, and his
herd of over 200 at Shadeland Farm is universally conceded to be the
finest herd of Herefords in the world. To the development of this herd
and his farming in Benton County, MR. EARL now gives his entire time.
His handsome residence in the city of La Fayette is in a ten-acre grove,
known as Fountain Grove. The grounds are very rolling and covered with
natural forest trees, and also inclose a deer park. In height MR. EARL
is six feet and one inch, and well proportioned. He has lived a
remarkably industrious life. ADAMS EARL was married to MARTHA J.
HAWKINS, daughter of JAMES HAWKINS, of Tippecanoe County, December 5,
1848. She was born in Butler County, Ohio. They had two children. The
daughter, ALICE J. EARL, was married December 20, 1876, to CHARLES B.
STUART, of La Fayette, a son of JUDGE WILLIAM Z. STUART, of Logansport,
Indiana. The son, MOVELL J. EARL, was married to a daughter of HON.
AUSTIN B. CLAYPOOL, of Connersville, Indiana, October 9, 1878. He died,
as stated, June 28, 1879, when he was a member of the firm of Adams Earl
& Co.
Biographical Record and Portrait Album of Tippecanoe County, Indiana
pp. 556 - 561