Elias Earle

Elias Earle (June 19, 1762 – May 19, 1823) was a United States Representative from South Carolina. Born in Frederick County, Virginia, he attended private school and moved to Greenville County, South Carolina, in September 1787. He was one of the earliest ironmasters of the South, and prospected and negotiated in the iron region of Georgia.

Earle was a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1794 to 1797 and was a member of the South Carolina Senate in 1800. He was elected as a Republican to the Ninth Congress (March 4, 1805 – March 3, 1807), was elected to the Twelfth and Thirteenth Congresses (March 4, 1811 – March 3, 1815), and was again elected to the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Congresses (March 4, 1817 – March 3, 1821). He died in Centerville, South Carolina, in 1823; interment was in Old Earle Cemetery, Buncombe Road, Greenville, South Carolina.

Elias Earle's nephews, Samuel Earle and John Baylis Earle, as well as great-grandsons John Laurens Manning Irby and Joseph Haynsworth Earle, were also members of the U.S. Congress.