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The Barbourville (Ky.) Debating Society minutes concern the group's weekly meetings in the late 1830s. Each set of minutes contains attendees' names, the number of affirmative and negative votes regarding that week's question, and the next week's discussion topic. Members discussed subjects related to national and state politics, finances, penal codes, gender, and morality.

The Barbourville (Ky.) Debating Society minutes (122 pages) concern the group's weekly meetings between May 27, 1837, and November 16, 1839, with breaks between November 18, 1837-March 10, 1838, and August 4, 1838-March 30, 1839. The first entry and those that immediately follow the breaks contain the society's 3 constitutions. In addition to meeting minutes, the volume includes a 2-page membership list.

Most sets of weekly minutes list the names of attending members, the names of members selected to debate that meeting's assigned topic, the results of the society's vote, and the topic to be discussed at the following meeting. The minutes also reflect administrative matters settled during meetings, frequently regarding the admittance of new members and the election of officers. The Barbourville Debating Society mainly discussed political matters; some topics were debated on multiple occasions. Issues for debate included banking and taxation, the death penalty, revision of the Kentucky constitution, the admission of Texas to the Union, the relative worth of wealth and talent, the intellectual capacity of men and women, foreign immigration to the United States, the propriety of sanctioning divorces, and the desired amount of government funding for education and infrastructure. On at least two occasions, the society considered whether Native American removal or slavery was the greater evil, and on one occasion they considered whether the United States government could be justified in its actions against the Seminole tribe (July 13, 1839). The society also debated the legacies of politicians such as Andrew Jackson and Napoleon Bonaparte, and discussed the possibility of Henry Clay running for president in 1840.

• Bradley, Erwin Stanley. Union College, 1879-1954: Written in Commemoration of the Seventy-fifth Anniversary of Its Founding. Barbourville, Ky.: The College, 1954.
• Cobb, Ann. Kinfolks: Kentucky Mountain Rhymes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1922.

The Port William (Ky.) Town Trustees minute book pertains largely to property ownership and improvement, taxation, and elections in Port William (later Carrollton), Kentucky, from 1797-1840.

This "Order Book of the Trustees" (365 pages) pertains to the affairs of the board of trustees for Port William (later Carrollton), Kentucky, between April 4, 1797, and March 30, 1840. The board initially met at residents' homes and later convened at the Gallatin Circuit Court clerk's office. Secretaries recorded the date of each meeting, the names of those present, and the group's resolution(s). Most resolutions pertained to property and surveyors' reports. The board sometimes paid residents to survey land or make improvements to streets and public buildings, such as the market house. The minutes regularly report the results of elections for the board of trustees, listing each voter's selections. The volume includes a small number of lists of taxes owed on each lot of property. The entry of May 8, 1838 (p. 342) is the first to refer to the town as "Carrollton."