Primarily copies, extracts, and summaries of correspondence and papers of the elder Symmes, made by Draper in 1846 from a manuscript volume loaned to him by John Cleves Short. Included are a few biographical entries from Symmes's daybook, 1812-1813, a letter (1776) on the death of his first wife, and an extensive series of business letters, 1788-1796. More than sixty of these were to and from Jonathan Dayton, but there are also a few to and from Elias Boudinot and members of the board of proprietors of the Miami Company.

Major topics discussed were the Miami Purchase and its early settlements, the government of the Northwest Territory, and military operations against the Indians. The latter portion of this volume contains notes and articles copied by Draper from the Ohio State Journal (Columbus, Ohio) and the Cincinnati Gazette. Among these are reminiscences of the Miami settlement signed by the initials “E. F.,” Joseph R. Underwood's recollections (1828) of William Dudley's defeat and the treatment of American prisoners of war in 1813, and obituaries (1826-1828) for Thomas Hinde, John Dunn Hunter, Thomas Todd, and Thomas Worthington.