Three notebooks, “J,” “K,” and “L,” bound together and containing information on border settlement in Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia gathered by Draper in 1844 from interviews, county records, family papers, and publications.

Although many civil and military leaders of the region are discussed, emphasis is on events in Tennessee such as the Cherokee campaign of 1776, the battle of King's Mountain and subsequent Shelby-Campbell controversy, the attack on Nashville in 1781, and the government of the State of Franklin. Draper's archival sources included records of Botetourt, Fincastle, and Montgomery counties, Virginia, and Sullivan and Washington counties, Tennessee. From private papers he copied Sevier family genealogical records and portions of Daniel Trabue's narrative of life in early Kentucky (a manuscript of which Draper later acquired the original in Volume 57 J). From publications he copied additional articles by Hugh Paul Taylor and a few obituaries.

The volume contains substantial biographical references to Anthony Bledsoe; Daniel Boone; Richard Callaway; Arthur, John, and William Campbell; Gilbert and William Christian; George Rogers Clark; John Donelson; Andrew Lewis and family; Benjamin Logan; Joseph and William Martin; William Preston; the Renfroe family and their Negro Robert; James Robertson; Evan and Isaac Shelby; John and Valentine Sevier; Stephen Trigg; William Whitley; and James Winchester. Many other names and events, however, are listed in the indexes prepared by Draper for each notebook (pages 183-194, 377-389, and 533-545).