Person:Elmer Earle (1)

Death Takes One of The Herald's Founders After Illness of Two Months
CITY PIONEER OF 1889
E. George Earle, aged 70, secretary-treasurer of the Bellingham Publishing Company, and a pioneer newspaperman of Western Washington, died at his home, 622 Sixteenth street, at 7:30 o'clock this morning. Mr. Earle's health had been failing rapidly for more than a year, but he continued his duties until about two months ago, when he suffered a stroke of paralysis. After a brief rally, he sank gradually and became unconscious Monday night as the result of a second attack. The end came peacefully.
Mr. Earle was born June 12, 1861, at Maquoketa, Iowa, where he got his first experience in a newspaper office. After working on a weekly paper in his home town, where at 15 years of age, he learned to set type by hand and later gained experience as an editor and publisher, her purchased the publication and operated it for a few years, with profit to the community and to himself. In 1889, at the age of 28, he decided to come West, having saved a stake of $2,000 for his venture, and selected Seattle as his destination at the suggestion of a mutual friend of himself and L. S. L. Hunt, then owner and publisher of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. He was give a job as solicitor in the circulation department of the Post-Intelligencer and later was employed as a reporter. As circulation solicitor he walked over a large part of Northwest Washington, from the Olympic peninsula to the Canadian border, and was a Blaine when the great fire swept through Seattle in 1889.

Meanwhile the Fairhaven boom attracted the attention of the whole Northwest. The Fairhaven Land Company had exploited Fairhaven as the prospective terminus of the Great Northern on Puget Sound. James J. Hill was said to have invested $600,000 or $700,000 in Fairhaven property and thousands of persons flocked to the fast growing city. About that time began the development of the newspaper business in Fairhaven, in which Mr. Earle played a prominent role for many years.

The Herald, of which Mr. Earle was part owner, business manager and treasurer over a long period, was the direct successor of Fairhaven's first papers, the Plaindealer and the World. The Plaindealer was launched in 1889 by the late J. B. Edwards. It passed speedily through different ownerships and in September, 1890, appeared as the Weekly World. A part interest was acquired by Mr. Earle, who then was marine reporter for the Post-Intelligencer. His partner was O. H. Culver, now deputy collector of customs in Bellingham.

The Fairhaven Herald was launched in the spring of 1890 by the Fairhaven Land Company, with Colonel Will L. Visscher, noted journalist, author, poet and lecturer, as editor. The World and The Herald prospered for a time, but early in 1891 the boom began to decline and both papers suffered financially. In August, 1891, Mr. Culver and Mr. Earle acquired control of The Herald and consolidated the two papers. Good times continued to diminish, however, thought the publication of the morning daily Herald and of the weekly World-Herald continued, much of the time at a loss. In 1892 Mr. Culver retired, and in April, 1893, Mr. Earle sold his interest in the Herald to C. X. Larrabee.

From here Mr. Earle went to Walla Walla where he became managing editor of the Walla Walla Union. The depression became increasingly acute and in 1894 the paper suspended publication. Mr. Earle went to Coupeville, on Whidby island, then an important farming community that had been less seriously affected by the panic than other sections of the state. He bought the Coupeville times and Sun, consolidating them as the Island County Times, June 1, 1894. For more than six years he published The Times.

Meanwhile The Herald, owned by C. X. Larrabee, had been running intermittently as a weekly, in charge of various lessees. In August, 1899, Mr. Earle arranged with Mr. Larrabee to revive the paper as a daily, and in 1900 began publication of both morning and evening editions. About a year later the morning edition was discontinued. Prior to the consolidation of Whatcom and Fairhaven in 1903, controlling interest in The Herald was sold to S. A. Perkins of Tacoma, but Mr. Earle retained his stock and continued as business manager until a few years ago, when he became head of the foreign advertising department. Meanwhile, he continued as secretary-treasurer of the Bellingham Publishing Company, a position he held at the time of his death.

Mr. Earle was married June 29, 1893, to Miss Harriette M. Sweet, then a teacher in the Larrabee school. At the time he was managing editor of the Walla Walla Union. After living in Walla Walla for a year, they moved to Coupeville, and later to Fairhaven. Mrs. Earle, a woman of charm and business ability, worked beside her husband through the vicissitudes of his newspaper experience until her death, March 30, 1911.

Mr. Earle attended grade school and high school in Iowa and in his adult life became a deep student of the classics and of music, in which he found an unending delight. He was a member of the Kiwanis club, of Bellingham camp No. 383, Woodmen of the World; Whatcom lodge No. 19, Ancient Order of United Workmen, and of Knights of Pythias lodge No. 56, of Bellingham. He also was a member of the St. James Presbyterian church.

The only surviving relatives are two sisters, Mrs. Robert Mann and Mrs. Lena Stimson, of Maquoketa, Iowa. Funeral services will be held Sunday, at an hour to be fixed, under the direction of the Harlow-Hollingsworth funeral home. Mrs. Mann will attend the funeral.