Miscellaneous original manuscripts, 1774-1821, interspersed with Draper correspondence, interview notes, copied documents, and other annotations made in the period from 1839 to 1844. Among the original papers are: a list of Daniel Smith's militia company, receipts signed by William Edmiston, and a letter of William Preston, all written in 1774; contemporary copies of early land surveys in Tennessee (1770s) and in Fayette County, Kentucky (1785); a letter (1782) by William Fleming; one (1790) by James O'Fallon to John Sevier on settlement at the mouth of the Cumberland River; a contemporary copy of James Mayberry's survey (1791) of the North Carolina grant on the Powell's and Clinch rivers for Richard Henderson and Company; and a letter (1793) by the Chickasaw leaders, Piomingo, William Glover, William Colbert, and others to James Robertson to request aid for the Chickasaw Nation against threats by the Creek Indians. Also included are Walter Alves's pocket account books, 1804-1812, recording expenses while traveling in Kentucky and Tennessee and notes on land surveys he made in Tennessee in 1810; and a letter (1821) by James Overton to William W. Worsley commenting on the National Bank and reception of its notes in Tennessee.

Draper's papers contain information on the following persons and events: Joseph Brown and his captivity; Landon Carter; John “Little Jack” Gordon's expedition to Elk River (1794); Samuel Handley; Edmund Jennings; the Nickajack campaign; Thomas S. Spencer; James Thompson; John Tipton; Daniel, Oliver, and Sampson Williams; and the attack on Ziegler's Station (1792). Draper also copied articles on the infamous Harpe brothers and on the medical treatment of scalped heads.