Chiefly receipts, accounts, etc., and some correspondence, documenting activities of an upcountry family engaged in farming and production of cotton, livestock, and weaving; family members include G.W. Cook, J.C. Cook, N.J. Cook, who served in the Confederate Army, and Lavina Cook apparently a seamstress and weaver. Letter, 22 May 1853, Benton County [now Calhoun County], Ala., Elias Smith to Nimrod Cook, Glenn Springs [Spartanburg County, S.C.], re farm land for sale, offering to assist Cook family should they wish to relocate to Alabama, "Land is high in this county, that is good, But not so high as it is in Carolina"; letter, 12 Apr. 1857, Laurens District, T.N. Bearden to [Miss Lavina] re settlement of "Cathcart's Estate," and debts. Civil War items, 1862-1865, discuss life on home front and soldier life [described separately in catalog]. Other items, ca. 1845-1866, include receipt, 1854, for a walnut bureau, and account, 5 July 1856, of W.G. Cook with general store, firm of Whitmire and Bobo, list of goods purchased, including entries for ribbon, lace, and muslin for burial of an African-American slave: "4 last named items on this bill was for the burial of Mrs. Smith's Negro"; accounts, ca. 17 Apr. 1855-June 1858 and 1862, for loans of flour, bacon, salt, coffee, and other goods to various neighbors. Other estate papers include accounts, 6 Nov. 1857, of R.A. Cates with "estate of J.C. Cook, dec[ease]d," for coffin screws, velvet, white hose, etc., and inventory [1857?], appraising household goods including spinning wheel, spinning machine, flax wheel, furniture, tableware, and other goods valued at $118.30.
