The Emerson Ela Papers continue the documentation of the Ela Family in Wisconsin begun in the papers of Richard Ela, a separately catalogued collection also held by the State Historical Society. The Emerson Ela Papers transfer that coverage from Rochester, Wisconsin to Madison where Emerson Ela settled after his graduation from Law School. Emerson's papers contain quality, but incomplete, historical documentation about his legal career and his many civic activities, while the papers of his wife, Florence White Ela, represent the personal side of the Ela family's life in Madison.
The Ela Papers are arranged as two series: the EMERSON ELA PAPERS and the FLORENCE WHITE ELA PAPERS. The EMERSON ELA PAPERS are further subdivided into General Papers, Civic Activities, Legal Files, and United War Work Campaign Records.
The alphabetically-arranged General Papers consist of biographical miscellany, one diary, personal and family correspondence, and speeches. The biographical miscellany includes a brief biography prepared by his son Walter P. Ela, a copy of Emerson Ela's funeral service, Xeroxed diplomas, a notarized statement attesting to his accurate prediction of the end of World War II, testimonial letters about his many civic activities from other members of those organizations, biographical clippings, and annual financial inventories. The diary consists of notes and journal entries about Ela's trip to Europe during the summer of 1921. This trip is also prominently featured in letters to Mrs. Ela and their children contained in the slim file entitled Family Correspondence. Also in the Family file are numerous letters to Ela and later to Emerson and Florence from his mother, Emily Eastman Ela of Rochester, Wisconsin.
The non-family, personal correspondence divides into two chronological segments which reveal the incompleteness of this type of documentation in the collection. The first file covers only the period 1901-1905; the second covers the period 1918-1923. The first file consists almost entirely of incoming letters; the second is made up almost entirely of outgoing carbons. (The latter file is available only on microfilm.)
The earlier personal correspondence file generally pertains to Ela's own legal and financial business and to the legal and financial business he carried on for relatives rather than to true personal material. It is likely that this correspondence was carried on through Ela's legal office and that the title “Personal” was used to distinguish it from legal business for clients.
The second personal file contains much more comprehensive documentation ranging from extensive correspondence about the management of Ela's farm in Rochester (with prominent Holstein breeder Enoch Haus) and his interest in local Republican politics (with individuals such as Irvine L. Lenroot), the YMCA, prohibition both in Madison and in Wisconsin (with individuals such as R. P. Hutton of the Wisconsin Anti-Saloon League), and other topics. Other scattered letters contain details about family life such as his event filled trip with his children to Yellowstone Park in 1922 and his interest in serving in the Judge Advocates Office during World War I. Additional letters blur the distinction between Ela's legal and personal concerns. For example, the 1918-1923 file contains a substantial correspondence concerning Richard Lloyd Jones and T. F. McPherson, former Madison friends and legal clients, then at the Tulsa Tribune.
The speeches in this subseries, which represent one of two speech files in the collection, consists of typed and handwritten addresses largely concerning patriotic and general political themes.
The Civic Activities files are arranged alphabetically by topic or organizational name. These files include correspondence, clippings about Ela's involvement in the organization, and handbills, flyers, and other literature. The majority of the files relate to Ela's very political leadership of the University of Wisconsin Alumni Association during the 1930s and his opposition to actions by Governor Philip F. La Follette to remove President Glenn Frank. Other interesting files concern the Madison Dry League, of which Ela was the head, and its efforts to enact a prohibition ordinance for Madison; the Madison Planning Trust's relations with planner Ladislas Segoe; the construction of the Memorial Union; the Philomathian Debating Society at the University; and social liberalism within the First Congregational Church and other Madison congregations.
The Legal Files primarily document the period when Ela practiced with James Oliver. Although Ela was one of the best-known trial lawyers in Wisconsin, the documentation in the collection primarily documents more mundane legal work such as collections work (which he carried out for the Wisconsin State Journal, for example) and property law and real estate management for Charles N. Gregory and others. There are no briefs and only scattered legal documents in the collection. Rather, the legal documentation consists of incoming letters, letterbooks containing outgoing correspondence covering the period from 1901 through 1905, and an early legal account book. The chief exception to the focus on routine legal work is the file about Ela's legal representation of Amos P. Wilder, work which continued to some degree even after Wilder left Madison. The files on the Northern Wisconsin Cooperative Tobacco Pool which is included with the Legal Files are disappointing because, although the pool represented one of Ela's most significant cases, no documentation on that particular litigation is present. In the files instead are clippings and numerous speeches and speech notes delivered during by Ela during the 1920s and 1930s on agricultural and cooperative topics.
The United War Work Campaign Records document in great detail Ela's leadership of a combined patriotic fundraising campaign which took place in Wisconsin during World War I. Ela's chairmanship originated from his statewide leadership of the YMCA's war work fundraising in 1918. When this organization merged with similar national campaigns Ela was selected as the Wisconsin chairman. In addition to Ela's own correspondence, the files include correspondence of Lee C. H. Orbach, publicity director, and Clara S. Roe, director of women's work. The United War Work Campaign correspondence is only available on microfilm. Also on microfilm is a scrapbook compiled by Orbach which includes draft and mimeographed press releases, bulletins, reports, mailing lists, questionnaires, and minutes issued by the Wisconsin campaign. The collection also includes a set of 203 lantern slides and accompanying scripts used by campaign speakers. These materials are thought to have been prepared by the national campaign organization. The lantern slides are available in the Visual Materials Archive.
FLORENCE WHITE ELA's papers consist primarily of diaries and diary-like material and a long run of household account books. Although the period from 1905 to 1927 is missing, there is very complete financial documentation for the remainder of Mrs. Ela's married life. These records generally classify expenditures by type and even include information on the value of furniture purchased for the home. The most complete run of diaries consist of the brief five-years-at-a-glance variety, although completeness and legibility of her short entries makes her diaries more useful than others of that type. Also of interest is the cottage logbook, a journal of events which took place at the Ela's lakeside cottage in the Madison suburb of Morris Park.
