388 
ROBERT EDWARD EARLL. 
ROBERT EDWARD EARLL. 
1853-1896. 
[Read before the Society, May 23, 1896.] 
Robert Edward Earll died at Chevy Chase, near Washing¬ 
ton, March 19, 1896. He was a native of Illinois, whither 
his parents had gone as pioneers in 1835, settling in the 
northeastern part of the State, near Lake Michigan. 
His father, Robert C. Earll, a native of the State of New 
York, belonged to the well-known Earle family of New Eng¬ 
land, the peculiar spelling of the name with the double 
terminal “1” having been adopted by himself. His mother, 
Sarah Montgomery, was of Virginian parentage. 
Mr. Earll was born at Waukegan, August 24, 1853, and 
was prepared for college in the public schools of his native 
town. In 1873 he entered the old University of Chicago, 
where he remained one year, then was transferred to the 
Northwestern University at Evanston, where he was gradu¬ 
ated in 1877 with the degree of Bachelor of Science, sub¬ 
sequently obtaining, in due course, that of Master of Science. 
He had a fondness for natural history, and through the 
influence of Mr. James W. Milner, a fellow-townsman and a 
graduate of the same university, who was at that time deputy 
United States Commissioner of Fisheries, he secured a posi¬ 
tion upon the United States Fish Commission, and was ap¬ 
pointed to the position of fishculturist by Professor Baird in 
1877. In 1878 he was transferred to the scientific staff of 
the Commission, and engaged in the same summer upon work 
at the Gloucester station. 
From 1879 to 1882 he was employed as special expert in 
the Fisheries division of the Tenth Census, and collected the 
statistics of the sea fisheries of northern New England and 
of the Middle and Southern States. 
In 1883 he was appointed a member of the staff of the 
United States Commissioner to the International Fisheries 
