The collection consists chiefly of correspondence of the Cochran family and business papers of Joseph Smith and James C. Cochran. Correspondence is mainly concerned with family matters. Topics include the Civil War, particularly efforts to avoid Confederate service, deserters in Shifflet's Hollow, Albemarle County, Va., the battle of White Oak Swamp, and civilian life during the war; schooling at Hanover Academy, Randolph Macon, and the University of Virginia under Albert Henry Tuttle and John William Mallet; an invalid's 1886 journey to Florida; and deaths after childbirth and from typhoid fever. Other papers document the legal and business affairs of Thomas Preston Lewis and Joseph Smith concerning loans, debts, land sales, pension claims, French spoilation claims, the 1832 General Assembly debate over slavery and abolition, a proposed boys' school, the mineral content of Rawley Springs water, local government appointments and militia promotions. Miscellaneous papers include inventories, South Carolina bonds, essays, poetry, physics lecture notes, slave lists, lottery tickets, deeds, surveys, indentures, and electrostatic copies of letters from Florence Nightingale to Mrs. Chermside extending sympathy, George Washington to James Duane re a Dr. Cochran, and John Tyler to a Dr. Curtis re a debt.
