At the outset the volume describes the initial contact with the indigenous Cherokees, the founding of the county and its courts, and Wilkes County in the Revolution--with particular attention given to the Battle of Kettle Creek. The concluding part of the book concerns the principal figures in the establishment and growth of schools and churches in Wilkes County, particularly Methodism. The intervening chapters are given over to Wilkes County genealogy and biography, with chapters on the buyers and sellers of lots and the early settlers of the county. The work as a whole is crowded with references to ministers, officials, teachers, and soldiers, so much so that an index of more than 2,000 entries was created by Mrs. Hays to encompass them.