Editing Earle, Arkansas (section)

=== Early 20th century ===
Originally, the Earle post office was located within Norvell. The move caused some controversy in the two communities, and in 1904 an altercation took place between the former and then current men who owned the land the post office sat on. John Watt, who formally controlled the post office, shot the current owner, W.M. Brown. Watt was later acquitted of the Brown's murder.<ref name=miller>{{Cite web |last=Miller |first=Adam |title=Norvell (Crittenden County) |url=https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/norvell-crittenden-county-7213/ |access-date=February 2, 2024 |website=Encyclopedia of Arkansas |language=en-US}}</ref>

From its formal incorporation in 1905 to the 1940s, Earle was one of the largest towns in Crittenden County. Referred to by locals as the "Pearl of the [[St. Francis River|St. Francis]]," for many years the town was a center of industry and an important transportation hub for the Arkansas Delta.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Miller |first=Adam |title=Earle (Crittenden County) |url=https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/earle-crittenden-county-869/ |access-date=February 2, 2024 |website=Encyclopedia of Arkansas |language=en-US}}</ref>

One of the more notable residents of Earle was George Berry Washington. Born into [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]] in 1864, Washington established a thriving business as a landlord, and through this enterprise provided a means of income for hundreds of Black Arkansans. In 1928, the widow and family of local figure George Berry Washington had a [[George Berry Washington Memorial|monument]], known as "the Angel in the Field", built to honor Washington's life.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.arkansas.com/earle |first=Julie |last=Kohl |title=Rev. George Berry Washington |date=December 2, 2020 |website=Only in Arkansas}}</ref>

In 1918, an African-American man named Elton Mitchell was eviscerated with a knife and hanged from a tree after he refused to work for a white landowner for free.<ref name="lynching13">{{cite book|title=Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror: Second Edition: Report Summary|date=2015|publisher=[[Equal Justice Initiative]]|location=Montgomery, Alabama|page=14|url=http://eji.org/sites/default/files/lynching-in-america-second-edition-summary.pdf|quote=In 1918, when Elton Mitchell of Earle, Arkansas, refused to work on a white-owned farm without pay, “prominent” white citizens of the city cut him into pieces with butcher knives and hung his remains from a tree.|access-date=May 16, 2017|archive-date=April 29, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170429053159/http://eji.org/sites/default/files/lynching-in-america-second-edition-summary.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:Crittenden County Museum Earle AR 02.jpg|thumb|The old Missouri Pacific Depot in Earle. Constructed in 1922, it is listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places listings in Crittenden County, Arkansas|National Register of Historic Places]].|left]]