The collection consists of a number of letters which fall into two main groups: 1) the letters of Curtis Reed to his fiancée, Lydia Ripley, 1849-1850, and 2) the letters of Harrison Reed to his sister-in-law, Lydia, written from Washington, D.C., 1862-1864. There are only a few scattered items between and after these periods. The first period consists of letters of a very personal nature, and only occasionally do hints appear of the Reeds' troubles with their real estate partners or of what life is like in a new village. The second group is mainly concerned with Harrison Reed's work in Washington and his attempts to get into Federal office in Florida. This group gives an indirect insight into the sort of cut-throat type of politics and office-seeking which resulted in the carpetbagger era. The later scattered letters are primarily concerned with attempts of Curtis Reed to be appointed to patronage jobs.
There is also a small group of other documents including: various certificates of appointment of Curtis Reed as postmaster and notary public at different dates from 1838 to 1895; three printed speeches of Harrison Reed while he was Governor of Florida; a mortgage agreement under which Curtis Reed sold some land in Florida to his brother Charles; a copy of the agreement whereby the Reeds acquired land along and water rights on the Fox River; and two handwritten sections of the Reed genealogy, which are quite fragmentary.
