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.
