A cache of numerous letters, romantic poetry, and a diary recovered from the Wilson home place in Columbia, SC, informs the 19th-century story of George Mendenhall Chapin (ne Wilson). Adopted as a child into the Charleston home of Leonard Chapin, George struggled with his stern adoptive mother Sallie F. Chapin who led the Woman's Christian Temperance Union movement in the south. Through narrative and letters George & Son tells of his flight from home, his shipwreck at sea, and his eventual reunion with his biological siblings. Never truly successful, George marries and fathers "the Son" of the book's title. The story continues with this son, Thurston Adger Wilson, who accomplished all George would have aspired to-becoming a leading figure in the NC labor movement of the 1920s and 1930s and advocate for the workers of the state. A transcription of George's letters concludes the illustrated, annotated book.