In the preparation of his opus, the author had occasion to interview many survivors of the original settlers of Sumner County.Cisco's opus emphasizes the founder and foundation of Sumner County, and, in fact, the work is substantially genealogical in content. The first fifty pages of the volume move rapidly over such topics as early exploration of the county, local topography, territorial laws and officials, early land owners, and, of course, Sumner County in the wars, particularly the Civil War. Thereafter, the work focuses on Sumner County pioneers and their families in a series of genealogical and biographical sketches of varying lengths, some of them illustrated.

"The minute books of the old Virginia courts herein transcribed cover the District of West Augusta and Yohogania and Ohio Counties during the period when Virginia claimed and exercised jurisdiction over what are now the Pennsylvania counties of Washington, Greene, Fayette, Westmoreland, and Allegheny. ... The minute books of the Virginia courts held within the limits of southwestern Pennsylvania from 1775 to 1780, when the contest between the two states had temporarily abated, contain, in addition to land titles, transcripts of legal instruments of immense genealogical value such as deeds, mortgages, conveyances, probate records, administrations, contracts, suits, judgements, and oaths of allegiance ..."--Foreword.

Records of the District of West Augusta and Ohio and Yohogania Counties, Va. 1775-1780.