Original manuscripts, 1788-1827. About a dozen letters to Boone concern his land affairs in Kentucky and his trade in horses, furs, and ginseng prior to his residence in Missouri. These correspondents included Peter Byram (1797), John Crooke (1797), Richard Henderson (1797), Mark Mitchel (Mitchell) (1792), William Poland (1791), Bartlett Searcy (1788), M.W. Van Lear (1790-1792), and Charles Yancey (1788). Several documents give information on Boone's purchase of land from Robert Hall in Missouri (1798-1800) and to Boone's service as syndic. Boone's letter (October 19, 1816) on his health and religious beliefs, which was addressed to his “Sister” (probably his sister-in-law Sarah Boone), is accompanied by correspondence (1874) about Draper's successful offer to purchase this manuscript. Related to the life of other members of the Boone family west of the Mississippi are an agreement (1808) between Nathan Boone and John Zumwalt on the sale, equipment, and operation of the salt works at Mackey's Lick near the Missouri River, and contracts (1827) signed by Daniel M. Boone for the erection of farm buildings for the Kansas Nation as authorized by William Clark, superintendent of Indian affairs at St. Louis. This volume also contains Draper's chronology of Boone's activities, 1792-1803. A clipped signature of Robert Dinwiddie, a few map tracings, and other memoranda show Draper's intent to provide numerous illustrations for his proposed biography.

A number of manuscripts have no direct association with Boone but pertain to men who had been his contemporaries in Kentucky. These include: a brief business note written by James Wilkinson (1789); a letter (1792) by John Jouett to George Nicholas about the excise tax on whiskey; a list of subscribers for the building of a room to house the library at Lexington, Kentucky (1800); a letter by James Smith to Robert Patterson describing the Indian siege of Fort Wayne in 1812; three manuscripts gathered in 1823 by John Bradford and James W. Palmer, one on Greenville, Kentucky, by James Weir, one on the Ohio River and its tributaries furnished by Thomas Bullitt, and one describing Madison County, Kentucky, by John Crooke; and an undated printed legislative bill to provide for the emancipation of Kentucky slaves, with a printed petition in its favor addressed to the General Assembly of Kentucky and signed by William Barbee, James Crawford, Andrew McCalla, W. MacLean, Robert Patterson, David Reid, and Robert Todd. Among the signers of documents not previously named are Richard Allan, Elijah Boodwell (Bodwell), Jesse B. Boone, James Bridges, Flanders Callaway, Micajah Callaway (by mark), Charles and Walter Carr, Eli Cleveland, Baker Ewing, Robert Goodloe, Ann Harrod (widow of James Harrod), Hendrick Lincoln, Hugh McGary, Alexander D. Orr, William Bailey Smith, Anthony Soulard, Francis Taylor, and Levi and Owen Todd.