The correspondence relates to the land and collection agency and law business of the firm of Washburn and Woodman at Mineral Point, Wisconsin, and also touches upon the lead shot manufacturing interests of the firm at Helena, Wisconsin, and the establishment of the Bank of Hallowell, in Maine, an important source of money for the Mineral Point firm's speculative activities.

From 1861 to 1865, there are military papers and correspondence relating to the sale at Helena, Arkansas, of government cotton, and military operations in Arkansas and Texas. Letters in 1869 from William D. Washburn of the Lincoln Mills at Minneapolis concern a proposal to acquire the site for a dam near Pokegama Falls, Minnesota. Numerous letters from Elihu B. Washburne, ambassador at Paris from 1869 to 1877, comment upon the siege of Paris, diplomatic matters, and American politics generally. Other letters, beginning about 1873, deal with family finances, and a few relate to whiskey ring frauds.