The Jacob E. Longbothum Papers consist of loose documents only, numbering about 250 individual items. Though the dates encompassed are from 1852 to 1868, almost half of the documents are for the years 1856, 1857 and 1858. Though about 25 documents are undated, a close proximity can be determined for them, no doubt, by one who undertakes an in depth study of the collection. In a few cases there may be some intermingling of 1860 and 1862 documents due to the illegibility of some of the dates.