After forty-eight years in Webb City, Capt. J. W. Earles age 91 years of 111 South Ball Street* passed away from infirmities incident to age. He had been a patient in Jane Chinn Hospital for three months.
Funeral services will be conducted at 2:30 P. M. Friday from the First Methodist Episcopal Church to Mt. Hope Cemetery by Rev. L. R. Lemming under Masonic auspices and with G. A. R. veterans servings as honorary pallbearers. The active pallbearers are J. C. Veatch, C. C. Harris, Albert Herrod, Ira O. Waldron, Harry B. Hulett, and A. G. Young.
Musical features of the service are to be contributed by a vocal quartet comprising Charles Jackson, L. S. Shaw, Mrs. Ted Bruff, and Mrs. E. C. Clark, with Mrs. Ben Holt as accompanist. The only immediate survivor is a son, George T. Earles of Royal Heights.
The deceased was born June 13, 1839, at Ironton, Ohio, and grew up there. He enlisted in the 53rd Ohio Infantry for service in the Union Army serving three years and nine months, going through a number of major battles now historic, and being with Sherman on the march to the sea. He was fortunate enough to avoid serious injury, once being saved from a bad wound by his belt which deflected a bullet.
He came out with the title of Captain, after first refusing to accept it and entering as a private, though he organized Company G from among his former schoolmates at Ironton. Returning to his native town he was made mason at Ironton, then moved soon after the war to Girard, Kansas where he became a Charter member of the Masons. Old-time members of that lodge will be here to attend the funeral. The lodge at Girard was organized in 1870.
In 1872 Captain Earles moved to Jasper County and in 1882 located in Webb City where he engaged in mining with Judge D. D. Hoag, the late R. B. Dodge, and others, and was instrumental in the opening of the well-known old Maud B. and Midway mines. He became a member of the First Methodist Church here, and at one time served the city as street commissioner.
He was married on St. Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1869, to Miss Josephine Hatfield at Cleveland, Indiana, and thereafter took delight in sending his wife the newest and finest Valentine he could find each anniversary of their marriage, for fifty-six years, until her death in 1925. The captain was one of those genial, friendly souls, a perfect gentleman of the old school, and may well and justly be referred to as a fine old gentleman.
Submitted by Jim Earles
*Article from the 27 Nov 1930 Webb City Missouri Sentinel
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