When the diary opens, young George is working in his father’s carriage shop building buggies, bob sleighs, and phaetons. He attends a bachelor’s supper, baseball game, and “Negro Bush Meeting.” In 1874, he leaves for Jamaica where he visits various sugar plantations, doing carpentry, fixing machines, and marvelling at the scenery and the behaviour of the local people. He is an active member of the Masonic Grand Lodge in Ontario, having joined in 1870, and he becomes its oldest living past master, at the age of 92.