The Frederick Fraser Papers comprises documents of a cotton planter in South Carolina. Papers include correspondence concerning the sale of cotton, some personal correspondence, assorted financial transactions concerning cotton, some miscellaneous personal papers, and a scrapbook that contains a variety of materials related to social life in South Carolina and the Civil War, including: correspondence, newspaper clippings, poems, copies of tombstone engravings, invitations, photographs, and postcards.

The Frederick Fraser Papers include correspondence concerning the sale of cotton, some personal correspondence, assorted financial transactions concerning cotton, some miscellaneous personal papers, and a scrapbook (152 p.). Includes an 1872 letter from Iredell Jones concerning his trial as a member of the Klu Klux Klan. The scrapbook contains a variety of materials related to both the social lives of the De Saussure, Fraser, and several other South Carolina families, as well as their activities during the Civil War, including: correspondence, newspaper clippings, poems, copies of tombstone engravings, invitations, photographs, and postcards. Scrapbook also includes letters from Henry De Saussure Fraser, a surgeon in Virginia. His letters describe military activities and life as a Union prisoner from 1863-1864 in Fort McHenry and Old Capitol Prison, as well as the Charleston earthquake in 1886. The scrapbook also includes a small volume of the De Saussure family genealogy. Persons mentioned in the collection include Thomas Boone Fraser, Sr., Daniel De Saussure, and Henry William De Saussure.

This collection holds miscellaneous papers (192 items; dated 1649-1971) including originals and copies of letters, Bible records, pictures, and printed works relating to the history of the Pearson, Smith, and Thompson families who migrated from England to Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and finally to Arkansas; letters, legal papers, historical notes, genealogy, military records, cemetery records, pictures, and maps pertaining to the history of Benton County, Tenn.; copies of the Civil War letters of Stephen W. Holliday, 55th Tennessee Regt., C.S.A.; anecdotes of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest; Melton family genealogy; and Smith family albums. A later addition (283 items, dated 1774-1986) includes information pertaining to the genealogy of several related families (including the Thompson and Wyly families, as well as information on the descendants of Col. Samuel and Mary Webb Smith). Includes printed works on genealogy and other topics compiled by Emma C. C. Brown and Jonathan K. T. Smith (primarily Smith). Also includes: correspondence; legal documents; copies of church records; clippings; writings about the history of Benton County, Tenn., and some of its citizens and communities; photographs; printed and other material on Camden, Tenn.; copy of the diary of Anne William Smith; copy of a portrait of Anne William Smith by Gustavus Grunewald (1847-1848); a recording entitled The Remembrance Pilgrimage about the Smith family of Nymcock, Tenn.; A Century with St. Mark's: An Informal History by Clara L. Cape; and an extensive biographical sketch on Col. Maurice Smith.

This collection is largely genealogical in nature and holds miscellaneous papers of Jonathan Kennon Thompson Smith including originals and copies of letters, papers, Bible records, pictures, and printed works relating to the history of the Smith, Pearson, and Thompson families who migrated from England to Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and finally to Arkansas. The Smith family descended through Maurice Smith (1801-1871) of Person County, North Carolina who later moved to Fayette County, Tennessee in 1831, and finally to Dallas County, Arkansas in 1843.

In addition to family correspondence of Maurice Smith (1801-1871); the collection has letters, legal papers, historical notes, genealogy, military records, cemetery records, pictures, and maps pertaining to the history of Benton County, Tennessee. Copies of the Civil War letters of Stephen W. Holliday, 55th Tennessee Regiment, C.S.A., to his parents, a history of Tulip and Tulip Ridge, Arkansas, by Smith entitled The Romance of, Tulip (Memphis: 1965), On this Rock . . . the Chronicle of a Southern Family, which is a history by Smith of the family of Colonel Samuel Smith and Mary Webb Smith of Abram's Plains, North Carolina; biographies of the Captain Nicholas Martian (1591-1657) and of Samuel Granville Smith (1794-1835); anecdotes of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest; a history of the Pearson family by Smith entitled This Valued Lineage; history of the Thompson family by Smith entitled These Many Hearths; albums of the Smith family containing pictures, clippings, and copies of letters and wills dating as early as 1649; genealogy of the Melton family by Herman E. Melton entitled Sassafras Sprouts; an anthropological study of the Indians of Kentucky Lake, Tennessee, by C. H. McNutt and J. Bennett Graham; and a pamphlet, 1961, by Smith entitled A Statement of Faith.

There is a microfilm copy of 'The Remembrance Pilgrimage. The Story of a Southern Family' (1964) available.