Papers, 1830-1907.

ArchivalResource

Ela, Richard E. (Richard Emerson), 1812-1888. Papers, 1830-1907.

Papers, 1830-1907.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/145788472

Correspondence and business records of manufacturer Richard Emerson Ela of Rochester, Wis. 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. The processed portion of this series is summarized above, dates 1830-1884, and is described in the register. Additional accessions date 1845-1907 and are described below.

2.5 c.f. (5 archives boxes and 1 flat box, including 28 volumes); plus9.0 c.f. of additions.

Wisconsin Historical Society, Newspaper Project