This collection comprises personal and business correspondence, receipts, and legal documents from 1826-1907. Also included are architectural plans and instructions for the building of a schoolhouse and a manuscript plat of Highland, Kansas, dated 1855.

John Bayless was president of the Susquehanna Western Emigration Company, formed in Kirkwood, Broome County, New York, December 7, 1854. This collection consist of papers concerning Highland, Kansas, 1840-1872.

The first papers of the collection, dating from the 1830s to 1855, cover William Patton's residence in Missouri and receipts for purchases of enslaved persons. The latter portion of the collection includes papers from related families and kinsmen: Summers, Renfro. and Pryor Plank.