Account ledgers, tax receipts, indentures, mortgages, promissory notes, cotton warehouse receipts, and business correspondence of Captain W. P. Timberlake (1838–1932), who operated as commission merchant and cotton factor in Monroe and Lowndes Counties, Mississippi, and Mobile, Alabama, following the Civil War. At various times the businesses were operated under the names of Timberlake & Allen, Timberlake & Mann, Smith & Timberlake, and Timberlake & Nance. James Allen, older brother of "Private" John Allen, was bookkeeper and later business partner of Timberlake.

Timberlake was born in Lexington, Tennessee, died in Jackson, Tennessee, and was married on March 14, 1867 to Susan Josephine Gilmer of Crawford and Columbus, Mississippi.