The Nixon family papers include documentation of Robert Nixon's naturalization, his attendance at the Law Department of the University of Chicago and his certification by the Illinois State Supreme Court for him to practice law. The collection also includes some letters and travel notes of a trip taken through Kansas in 1871.

The Chapman family papers include a letter from Nellie Chapman Nixon's Uncle Ben (B.W. May) shortly after the Civil War and a photograph of Harvey Spencer during the Civil War. There are also typed notes of the Chapman family genealogy.

The Williamson family papers include letters to O.K. Williamson when he captained the KU football in the early 1890s, business and personal correspondence, newspaper clippings and a photograph of him as a young man.

The Cooper family papers are comprised of three journals, all three of which were written by John Wesley Cooper (born 1842), a teacher, who wrote in his "Journal to 1876" of the schools and institutes he taught. There are also family genealogies the Cooper family and the families of Albert H. Warren, Charles Collins, Kendal J. Pattey, Edward R. Crapper, and Peter Quillin families. In his "Family Journal 1876" to 1899, he described the daily Cooper family activities. Cooper also began a "Common Place Book" in 1869.

Additionally, there are two letters from Chadwick family members, who may have ties to the Williamson family, during the Civil War. At some point, it seems an effort was made to sort out the histories of the intertwined Nixon, Chapman, Williamson and Cooper families, as there are handwritten notes of family history and genealogy throughout the collection.