Caldwell County MO Archives History .....DR. JAMES EARL IN BRECKENRIDGE TOWNSHIP 1937 
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Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com August 30, 2008, 4:07 pm

DR. JAMES EARL IN BRECKENRIDGE TOWNSHIP 1937
	Narrator:  Mrs. Leta Earl Moore of Breckenridge

     James Earl, son of John and Mary Earl, was born in New Jersey, Sept. 
25th, 1797.
     After growing to young manhood in his native state, he became a sailor.  
Soon he was threatened with tuberculosis and took up the study of medicine.  
After finishing his medical course, he migrated west, making the journey 
partly by boat and partly by ox team.
     He came in with the Mormons along the Shoal Creek and settled in the 
extreme eastern part of Caldwell County in 1837 where he homesteaded 120 acres 
of land.  Later he bought hundreds of acres of virgin soil in Caldwell and 
Livingston counties, much of which he sold after there was a rumor that the 
government was contemplating taking over much of the land of large land-owners 
to encourage settlement.
     On his homestead in 1858, he built the first frame house in that part of 
the country.  The whole structure was built by hand.  Doors, window frames and 
all other frame work were planed, grooved and mortised by hand.  Weather 
boarding, doors, casings, built-in cupboards, and clothes closets and all 
other inside woodwork were made of walnut.  The frame was of oak.  Shingles 
were split or rived and then planed.  The lathes were also split.  The 
plastering was made of sand and lime with cow hair for fibre.
     The skill with which the workmen finished the house equalled if not 
surpassed factory work of to-day.  The lumber was selected from the best 
timber available and the woodwork was sandpapered and pumiced by hand.  The 
structure was fifteen months in the making.
     While James Earl practiced his profession, (medicine) his hired help 
tilled the soil with oxen and small walking plows and later with mule teams.  
The ground was laid off with single shovels and the corn was cultivated with 
double shovels, after being planted sometimes by hand and sometimes with hand 
planters.
     Clothing was made from home made materials-home spun and home woven.
     James Earl was married to Martha Dennison Anderson June 12, 1854.  Their 
two children were Mary Earl who married Calvin Sergent and James Thomas Earl 
who married Minerva Dye.  Mary Earl died in 1926 and James Thomas Earl, April 
28, 1931.  His wife, Minerva Dye Earl, still lives on the farm homesteaded by 
James Earl.  James Thomas Earl's daughter, Mrs. Leta Earl Moore collected the 
above facts.


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