Mainly correspondence and a few interviews about Boone's life, obtained by Draper from a few survivors and many descendants of Boone's contemporaries in Kentucky, including Lucy Brashears, Nathaniel Bullock, William Bush, John Gass, William Hancock, Samuel Henderson and his wife Elizabeth Callaway, George Hendricks, John Holder and his wife Frances (Fanny) Callaway, Andrew Johnson (1750-1826), Benjamin Kelley, Mordecai Millard, Yelverton Peyton, William Stafford, Richard Wade, Felix Walker, and James Westerfield.

Among other materials found in the volume are copies of letters written by William Preston (1781) and Nathan Reid (1782) to John Floyd; a copy of a narrative (1804) written by Charles Beazley describing his captivity among the Indians and his association with Bryan's Station, an account sent to Draper by H.R. Stafford; one original document (1833) concerning the settlement of the estate of John Brown (1752-1832); and several printed articles about Felix Walker. Letters by John Wade (1861) comment on Abraham Lincoln, the Union, and the outbreak of the Civil War.