The collection is filled with accounting ledger, personal information and a few diary entries. About half the ledgers are accounts both settled and unsettled. There are also ledgers that contain orders that had yet to be filled. James Cartwright chronicled business matters in his ledgers.

Day books, account books and bills from J. M. Cartwright's store in Nat, Texas from which he peddled into other East Texas towns. Also includes tax receipts, correspondence, and business advertisements, genealogical material concerning Lewis, Campbell and Radley families. The bulk of the collection covers the period of the 1870s through the 1890s.