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"Old" Macon County, North Carolina at one time included all the land from the Blue Ridge on the east to the state boundaries of South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee. In 1820, a survey party mapped the new territory, which remained part of Haywood County until 1828, the year Macon County was established. At the outset, "Old" Macon County included all or part of the present-day western North Carolina counties of Macon, Jackson, Swain, Transylvania, Cherokee, Clay, and Graham, and it would serve as a stop on the trail leading west for migrants from the adjoining areas of North Carolina, the South Carolina upstate, and parts of Georgia and Tennessee.

For this original Clearfield book, Barbara Sears McRae has abstracted Macon County Deed Books A-E (1829-1850) to yield an accounting of the county's earliest settlers. Each abstract typically identifies the buyer and seller of the land, the date of the transaction, the location of the land transferred, and the names of witnesses. Ms. McRae also provides an index to over 4,000 persons named in the records, a separate index to slave transactions, and an index to places. All in all, a beautifully executed work destined to be regarded as the starting point for Macon County genealogical research.