The collection primarily contains family correspondence and receipts for goods and payments. Business papers include the purchase agreement of a mule, 1883, by Merrick. There are numerous letters to Marietta W. Austin from an old love named C.J. Johnson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1939 - 1941. Also included are a land deed (Murray County, 1848), marriage application and license (1929), and war ration books from World War II.