Three of us are actively engaged in research on the pioneer history of early Sumner County, which then included today's Trousdale, Smith, Jackson and Macon counties. We are working in cooperation and with the active support of The Sumner County Museum, Bledsoe's Lick Historical Society, and the Historical Societies of Sumner, Trousdale and Smith Counties. Our scope includes all phases of that history - commercial, political, family, military, cultural. We have a special interest in the location of the old roads of the area and the Revolutionary land grants which assist in locating those roads. We solicit your help, by allowing us to review previously unpublished letters, journals or diaries from that period, as well as later documents, memoirs, maps, portraits or sketches dealing with it. If these are found to be appropriate for inclusion in a book we plan to publish in 2008, modest cash awards will be available for the one-time right to use them. Originals will in all cases never leave your possession and strict confidentiality will be maintained as to source, unless you consent to credit for them. We anticipate this will be a very large and comprehensive of the turbulent formative frontier period on the Cumberland, and will, we believe, take its place alongside the already large number of excellent references on our area, so rich in history. We respect the value of your family treasures and will treat then with the respect they deserve! Bill Puryear 1512 Cherokee Rd Gallatin, TN 37066 tel 615-452-1540 pury@comcast.net www.billpuryear.com also Jack Masters E-mail Address(es): aujm2@comcast.net 615-452-6382 Doug Drake