Letters and legal documents relating to a controversy over some 64,000 acres of land in Hopkins and Wood counties, Texas, in which William McKendree Gwin, Greenwood Leflore, Levin R. Marshall, William J. Minor, and heirs of James C. Wilkins were interested. This collection includes a 90-page petition filed in the District Court of Nacogdoches County, Texas, September 29, 1856, by William M. Gwin et al. v. Henry Raquet, et al.

On March 31, 1863, Gwin wrote to both Greenwood Leflore at Carrollton and Levin R. Marshall at Natchez informing them that their former agent, a Dr. Capes, had taken the oath of allegiance to the Federal government, and therefore would embarrass them in their land dealings in Texas; and stating that he had appointed W. W. Porter to represent him in the matter. William M. Gwin was a native of Tennessee, and later made his home in Clinton. In 1833 President Jackson appointed him marshal of the United States Court for Mississippi. He served in the U. S. Congress.