Papers of John Marshall McCall, a soldier and a merchant of Ashland, Oregon, include materials relating to the First Oregon Cavalry, Fort Klamath, the Central Oregon Military Road, other Oregon road companies, and personal business matters. Included are official military reports and correspondence from McCall's escort duties to the Oregon Central Military Road survey party (1865) and during his service at Fort Klamath in the winter of 1865-1866, as well as a diary relating to a military escort trip. Other military papers include a notebook detailing the cavalry's travel and expenses, along with a narrative addressed to Native people and providing details about the U.S. government's plans for them, February-November 1865; a California telegraph concerning a deserter, James Forrest; correspondence from Fort Klamath, August 30, 1865, with orders to proceed to Indian Springs and meet Captain Kelly, Company C; and news of mail, rations, military plans, and a bill for supplies, February-March 1865.

Papers relating to business and personal affairs include McCall-Applegate family letters, deeds, insurance papers, estate papers of Phoebe Baltimore, records relating to McCall's store in Ashland, the constitution of the Willamette Woolen Manufacturing Company, and material on the Southern Oregon Wagon Road Company and the West Ashland Water Ditch Company.