In addition to the area’s early history learned from his mother, much of the author's information in this comprehensive book was obtained by visiting and conversing with older residents in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina. Having possession of the very earliest court records made in Jonesborough (1778–1800), the author made original investigations of the facts and the men who constituted the court. He quotes extensively from these old records kept in Washington County, noting that it was the first county established and organized in the state and included for quite a time all of the early settlements in what has been commonly known as “upper East Tennessee.” Along with stories about Jackson and others well known in Tennessee’s early history, numerous other names—such as Hump Gibson and the Widow Dyckes—are found in the old court records.