Born in Rochester, New Hampshire, Ela attended the village school in Rochester. At fourteen years of age he was apprenticed in a woolen manufactory and subsequently learned the printer's trade.
Elected as a Republican to the Fortieth and Forty-first Congresses, Ela served as United States Representative for the 1st congressional district or the state of New Hampshire (March 4, 1867 – March 3, 1871). He served as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Interior (Forty-first Congress).
Ela was appointed by President Grant as Fifth Auditor of the Treasury on January 1, 1872, and served until June 2, 1881. On June 3, 1881, he was appointed Auditor of the Treasury for the Post Office Department and served in that position until his death.[2]
Death
Ela died in Washington, D.C., on August 21, 1884 (age 64 years, 34 days). He is interred at Rochester Cemetery, Rochester, Strafford County, New Hampshire.
Family life
The name Ela first comes to the US in the late 1630s, and the US family originates from Haverhill, Massachusetts, in the early 16th century, where the Ela family cemetery is located at Walnut Hill Cemetery in Haverhill, Massachusetts.
Ela married the widow, Abigail (Moore) Kelley and they had three sons, Frederic P., Wendell P., and Charles S. Abigail died in September 1879, and he married Mary Handerson on October 2, 1880.[3]
