This assortment of primarily business-related papers centers on the Thompson family of Davidson County, Tennessee, and, to a lesser degree, on the Sullivan family of Sangamon County, Illinois. While Allen Thompson is the central figure in the papers of this collection dated in the first half of the nineteenth century, his son, Wilson N. Thompson, becomes the central figure after Allen's death in 1852.

Though most of the papers in the collection are business receipts and bills of sale, there are also affidavits and promisary notes. Aside from business-related papers there are a few letters of correspondence, and certificates indicating promotions in military rank for Wilson N. Thompson.

Most noteworthy among individuals whose signatures appear in the collection is Felix Robertson, sixth son of pioneer Tennessean James Robertson, who is considered by many to have been the first white male born in Nashville, Tenn. (January 11, 1781). He went on to become mayor of that city in 1818 and again in 1827, before becoming a prominent physician and president of the Medical Society of Tennessee from 1834-1840.