The papers of Charles Butler span the years 1817 to 1908, the bulk of which pertain to the dealings of the American Land Company, and the Wabash and Erie Canal. They include correspondence, business papers, legal documents, ledger books, pamphlets, and maps.

Butler's American Land Company correspondence deals chiefly with property issues along the Mississippi River, public debts in Indiana, and the Wabash and Erie Canal. There is also a small amount of family correspondence and a 1833 letter written to the editor of the Albany Argus regarding travels in the western states.

The business papers include land patents for 1841, stock certificates dated 1847 and 1853, state of Michigan reports and the Governor's message of 1849, a patent signed by the secretary of the State of Wiscons in 1856, and bound letters from J.L. Williams, chief engineer of the Wabash and Erie Canal.

Many business letters are bound into volumes with indexes and prominent correspondents include Henry and Peter Anderson, Walter Goodman and James G. King of Indianapolis. Also included are legal documents which refer to the case of Anderson v. Messinger (a property case in Toledo, Ohio), correspondence, exhibits for trials in 1906 and 1908, briefs for the defendant and plaintiff, and a petition. Other legal documents concern the Wabash and Erie Canal and include letters to law offices and attorneys F.W. Gilley Jr., McDonald and Butler, F.F. Marbury, F.F. Marbury Jr. and others.

The financial ledgers contain bills receivable, bills payable, receipts, disbursements, expenses, balance sheets, and interest rates. There are also scrapbooks of newspaper clippings.

Pamphlets and annual reports span the years 1827-1878, and are primarily concerned with the Wabash and Erie Canal corporation. The maps include state maps of Pennsylvania, Indiana and Ohio from the 1840s and 50s; a detailed map of Toledo and its vicinity, with details of its streets, ports, and new additions ca. 1850s. There is also a map of an Indian Reservation and an Oak Orchard.