This book includes accounts for both white and "colored" patients by name. Dr. John G. Ector (1832-1916) recorded little information about treatments, but he made many visits, usually charging one or two dollars each, and he dispensed medicine, usually for about 50 cents. According to a biographical sketch written by Arthur Ledbetter in 1924, Ector practiced west of town and out toward Guilford College, and he also had an extensive farm with apple orchards that were locally famous. The ledger shows that some of his patients paid their bills by working in his gardens and orchards, hauling wood, and plowing. Census records reveal that he came to Guilford from Davidson County before 1870. At that time he was married to Phoebe and had three children. The 1900 census shows that he was widowed and lived alone in a boarding house, but by 1910 he was married again to Ida, who was 37 years his junior.