This manuscript is a transcript of a speech that William Curtis Stone gave in Celina, Tennessee to the Clay County High School Alumni Association on September 1, 1962. The majority of the document focuses on Clay County's early history and includes lists of prominent settlers. Stone closes his speech with excerpts from an 1876 letter by Captain J. R. Copeland, which gives a vivid description of life during Copeland’s childhood in what was then (early 19th century) called Overton County.

This collection houses a receipt that W. Brown, deputy tax collector for the Third District of Tennessee, issued to John McCord on April 29, 1817. It documents McCord's payment of $0.45 in direct tax on Thomas Hendricks' property in Overton County, Tennessee.

This collection consists of two documents recording transactions involving Joseph Bates and witnessed by Overton county clerk John Daugherty. The first document, dated November 5, 1838, records Bates' loaning of an enslaved woman of forty named Tiller and a boy of 10 named Thomas to Robert Mitchell. The second, dated August 4, 1845 concerns land sold to Bates by Martin Cox, detailing the exact boundaries of the tract.

This collection houses primarily legal documents (including land transfers and deeds) documenting the Joseph Bates family from 1833 to 1919. There are also descriptions of each document and information about the Bates family provided by donor Jerry Brooks.