My Dear EllaIn the mid 1880s, Kentuckian Walter T. Connelly moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee and almost immediately became smitten with the charming Ella Ham, also a native of Kentucky. As Walter traveled across the Southeast selling agricultural implements for the Hoosier Drill Company, the American Seeding Machine Company, and the Walter A. Wood Harvester Company, he carried on a correspondence with Ella that culminated in their marriage. The book opens with