Recorded are the names of summer boarders at Woodbury House on Folly Cove in Gloucester, Massachusetts, 1863-1870, and the visitors, callers, boarders, and lodgers at Echo Hill Cottage, 1892-1920, perhaps also in Gloucester. The name of the owners of the houses is not certain, although the original owner of the register appears to have been a Woodbury: there are a few 1804 accounts on the inside front cover. Unfortunately, the additional pages of these early accounts are missing. Perhaps the boarding house family inherited the register along with the house, or found it in the house after purchase.

Visitors to Woodbury House came from many Massachusetts towns, including Lowell, Boston, Medford, Newton, Roxbury, Dorchester, Beverly, Salem, and Fitchburg, as well as Washington D.C. and New York State, especially Syracuse and Buffalo. Some people coming to Echo Hill Cottage dwelled further afield, in California, Chicago, Iowa, Philadelphia, Vermont, and Maine, although many were from Massachusetts. Some appear to have been family friends, even neighbors, who came to visit; others were boarders previously unknown to the family. Among the repeat guests was Mabel Georgia Spear of Amherst.

Also noted in the register are: the year Alphonso built his house, the occasion of Echo Hill Cottage being struck by lightning, guests at a Christmas party, lists of members of the Lanesville Universalist Church and Society who died or moved away, the itinerary of someone who called upon friends in various Massachusetts towns in 1906, moral and religious verses entered by "Grand Ma", and numerous beautifully preserved dried flowers and foliage.