Draper correspondence, mainly 1859-1867, with relatives of Brady, Wetzel, and their associates. Correspondents recalled tales and traditions, such as Brady's capture of an Indian boy in western Pennsylvania and his arrangements for the boy's education, and Brady's rescue of Mary (Mrs. William) Wallen in 1784 or 1785. Writers reminisced about their own lives: education in a crude log schoolhouse; an encounter with two escaping Negro slaves; the healing of a sick white child by a captive Indian woman using herbal medicine.

Letters refer to many persons and families, including David Boyd; Jacob Colman and his wife, Sarah McColloch sister of John and Samuel McColloch; Joseph L. Finley; David Fouts; Silas Hedges and his sons Isaac and Solomon; Hamilton Karr and his son William; Robert Maxwell; Ebenezer Nye; Jonathan Plumer and his son George R.; John, Moses, and William Riley and the massacre of the latter's family (1792); Philip Six (Sicks) and his brothers Jacob and John; Charles Smith and his sons Charles and John; Thomas Sprott, Jr., and his wife Mary Woodburn; Daniel White and his wife Susan Pettis.