Charles Henry Shriner wrote the bulk of this diary while traveling through Tennessee between October of 1843 and April of 1844. The entries mention his sales activities and the weather as well as recording conversations, speeches, gossip, and legislative activities. Of particular note are entries describing a visit to Andrew Jackson at the Hermitage and Jackson's negative opinion of abolitionists (November 18), a slave who craved freedom even though he had a good mistress (February 14), and a Jackson Jubilee where ex-governors William Carroll and James K. Polk told stories (March 15).

Shriner resumed writing in 1882, giving a summary of his rise from poverty to wealth and political position. He describes buying and trading several properties, being appointed an Inspector of Philadelphia, and becoming Collector of Internal Revenue for the 14th Congressional District of Pennsylvania during President Lincoln's term. The events described in the summary are indexed at the end of the book.

Interspersed throughout the diary are lists of quotes and vocabulary words, financial records, a list of Shriner's parents' and siblings' birth and death dates, a letter to the editor explaining the 1852 Union County dispute over railroad bonds, an essay about the passage of time, and a Mifflinburg Inventory from January 6, 1874.