Title: Richard E. Ela Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1830-1884

Creator:

• Ela, Richard E. (Richard Emerson), 1812-1888

Call Number: Mss 834

Quantity: 2.5 c.f. (5 archives boxes and 1 flat box, including 28 volumes)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Library-Archives Division

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

See the catalog entry for information on possible additional materials and shelf locations.

Abstract:

Correspondence and business records of manufacturer Richard Emerson Ela of Rochester, Wisconsin. Early letters to his family describe his efforts to establish himself in the West and discuss land speculation, financial operations, and agricultural prospects. Later business correspondence is mainly incoming mail from his agents who sold the Ela fanning mills, wagons, carriages, plows, and other agricultural implements from town to town or from their own hardware stores, and from wholesale manufacturers and a few individual customers. Further details of his business are found in journals, ledgers, cash books, agents' sales books, inventories, lists of customers, and miscellaneous volumes from the firms of Richard E. Ela & Co. and Thompson & Ela. In addition, the collection includes letters written to Ela by two young friends, William W. S. Bliss and Henry L. Kendrick, between 1830 and 1837 which describe student life at the U.S. military academy at West Point.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00834

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The Richard E. Ela Papers consist of correspondence and business records. The correspondence is composed of typewritten excerpts of letters written by Ela to his relatives in Lebanon, New Hampshire from Plainsfield, Illinois and Rochester, Racine County, Wisconsin, and originals of letters received by Ela before leaving New Hampshire and while engaged in the business of manufacturing and selling fanning mills, wagons and carriages, plows, and other agricultural implements in Rochester.

The family letters, dated 1830 to 1854, describe Ela's early efforts to establish himself in the West and the land speculations, financial operations, and agricultural prospects there. From about 1845 to 1865 there are quantities of letters concerning his business operations, received from his agents who sold Ela machinery from town to town in southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois, and eastern Iowa, or from their own retail hardware stores. There are also letters from wholesale manufacturers in Wisconsin and in eastern cities, and from individual customers, also a few letters from Ela to these people.

Further details of his business are found in 32 account books, dated 1843 to 1884, kept by his firm, consisting of journals, ledgers, cash books, agents' sales books, inventories, lists of customers, and miscellaneous volumes. After about 1865 the manuscripts relate almost exclusively to agriculture.

Student life at West Point is depicted in a collection of letters written to Richard E. Ela of Lebanon, New Hampshire, from 1830 to 1837, by two young acquaintances of his, William W. S. Bliss and Henry L. Kendrick. Comments on curricula, examinations, instructors, fellow students, customs, and reports of activities of graduates of the Army academy are interspersed with personal items. Bliss also writes two letters from Fort Mitchell in Alabama and Camp Armistead, Tennessee, at which posts he was stationed for brief periods after his graduation in 1833.

Acquisition Information

Presented for the Ela family through the courtesy of Mrs. Mary E. Willard, 1931-1936.

	Correspondence
Box   1	1830-1856
Box   2	1857-1884
	Thompson & Ela
Box   4 Volume   16	Journal, 1854-1860
Box   2	Miscellaneous accounts Physical Description: 12 unnumbered volumes, unbound and incomplete
	Richard E. Ela & Co.
	Daybooks
Box   3 Volume   1	1842-1843 Sept.; 1862
Box   6 Volume   2	1867-1884
	Cash Account Books
Box   3 Volume   3	1848-1850
Box   3 Volume   4	1850-1851
Box   3 Volume   5	New Partner's Papers, 1855-1860
Box   3 Volume   6	Miscellaneous Accounts, 1852-1872
	Notes, Loans, Sales
Box   3 Volume   7	1856-1860
Box   3 Volume   8	1860-1869
Box   3 Volume   9	1870-1871
Box   4 Volume   10	Inventory, 1859
	Journals
Box   4 Volume   11	1847-1849
Box   4 Volume   12	1849-1854
Box   5 Volume   13	1855-1861
	Ledgers
Box   5 Volume   14	1847-1854
Box   5 Volume   15	1885-1861