The collection contains the family papers of John W. Nixon, a pharmacist residing in Jennings, Missaukee County, Michigan. The papers include business correspondence, personal correspondence, and miscellaneous receipts and documents. Included among the family's business dealings were ownership of a grocery company in Potterville and later Levering, Michigan, run by John's son James R. Nixon; and, operation of a fruit grove in Avon Park, Florida.

The collection also includes the personal receipts and household accounts of Bruce E. (Bert) Starr, an insurance agent and state fire inspector; newspaper accounts and a coroner's report of his sudden death, sympathy letters received by his widow Ethel, daughter of John W. Nixon, and other of Ethel's correspondence. Folder 14 contains a photograph of Bert Starr.