The contracts concern the trade of such firms as the American Fur Co., Robert Dickson and Co., and the Michilmackinac Co. on the Mississippi, Missouri, and St. Peter's (Minnesota) rivers, in other areas of present-day Wisconsin and Minnesota, and at locales around the Great Lakes. Also listed are engagements of the employees of many small companies and those of independent traders for whom few other records exist. Each calendar gives the names of employer and employee, the date of hiring, the salary (in libres), and the place of employment for the ensuing winter.

With the calendar are Abbott's copies of many kinds of documents including land transfers and complete fur trade contracts. Of interest is an agreement (June 24, 1806) between Robert Dickson and Co. (including its partners, Dickson, Jacob Franks, Allan C. Wilmot, and James Aird, respresenting himself and "his late brother George") and the firm of James and Andrew McGill, Montreal suppliers (as represented by Thomas Blackwood, a partner in the company and its agent at Michilimackinac). It lists the Dickson firm's indebtedness to the McGills and arranges for repayment in furs and money. Another agreement (August 20, 1818) between James Aird and the American Fur Co. stipulates that Aird is to conduct the company's trade on the Mississippi River above Prairie du Chien (Wis.) for two years in return for half the profits.

The above description was takend from Bruce M. White, comp., The Fur Trade in Minnesota: An Introductory Guide to Manuscript Sources (MHS, 1977), p. 7.

The sole original document is an oath (July 8, 1811) sworn by Abbott when he was appointed a Justice of the Peace for the Michilimackinac District.