Yellow Springs,
June 12th 1855

My very dear Miss Lascelles,

I am almost ashamed to write to you after my seeming indifference to your many proofs of regard for me. Believe me, tho my pen has been less in exercise then I should wish my affection for you and my gratitude has only been deepened by time and distance. I trust you are now stronger than when we last heard of you from our dear Bessie Parkinson. This evening I was thinking over the pleasant day I spent with you in Dublin. My poor Aunt's death has rarely left my mind and costs me such anguish that I could not be near her to assure her how dear she was to me. This I know to many would seem inconsistent from my actions but circumstances often makes me appear different from my real feelings and character and though so long as God gives me health and am able to provide for myself the knowledge that I cannot give tangible evidence of affection to those I love and value makes me sometimes withhold the expressions of my thoughts towards them. I was very glad to have a few lines from Mrs Surch and trust they are both well should I not have time to reply in this. I shall devote some other time to it. From the date on this you perceive I am not in Cincinnati. I left about three weeks ago with the family with whom I have been residing for the six last months teaching one little Republican, a boy about 8 yeas old. You may imagine my duties are not very arduous. The salary is not nearly near so good as my last one in Mr Trenche's but I was willing to have every thing in this way till I should be established a little in the city and till I should become acquainted with the manners and customs of the people. I have not been able to aid my father and mother in any way. They are entirely dependent on Willy and Johnny. The former is only about fifteen miles from me. I got a passing glance of him coming by in the train. Mamma and Papa both looked well and were so when I left. They live with Nanny, that is they board with John Cinnamon and her. Nannys house is our place of "rendezvous" or home while we are in the city. Mamma has got thin, Papa also, but they both enjoy better health than they have had for many years. Mother still attends the Methodist Church but I fancy she misses all her old associates in Belfast more than she would acknowledge. The Methodists are a large body in America. Mr and Mrs Neff are of the same denomination and both excellent people. The scenery about Yellow Springs (so called from the water) puts me in mind of the beautiful "Dargle" in County Wicklow. Mr Neff's property is quite extensive. The house has 4 hundred feet of Piazza apartments sufficient for some dozen families surrounded on all sides by orchards of peaches, pears, apples and vineyards. He cultivates the native grape for the Catanobe? wine tho a strict temperance man. They are very kind to me. All the Ladies called on me here which is quite a new phase in my governess experience. I am asked out very often by Mr Neff's friends. Last winter I went to several nice parties with the family. The woods here are quite beautiful. We drive for miles and miles through them where a road has been cut. Peaches grow wild here, the wild flowers are numerous and beautiful too. There is a large tree in the lawn under which the first sermon in the Miami? Valley was preached by a white man. Indians possessed this place not more than 40 or 50 years since and so rapid has been the progress of civilisation that scarcely a trace of the original possessors is to be seen but some of their bones whitened by the sun, some rude mounds and arrows made of flint occasionally turn up in clearing the woods or ploughing the fields. Papa sees Mr Richardson of Downpatrick very often, I occasionally see some old country people. I don't intend going home till November. I am nearly as far from Mamma as when I lived in Dublin and they in Belfast. Any of the little Parkinsons about marrying. I hope they will soon if not already settled already. Americans marry young. We have a niece of Mrs Neff's here just seventeen and she has been married seven months. Her husband is not quite 19. They are advocates for early marriage particularly as conducted here where the young people remain under the parental roof for many months after and frequently years. Dont visit my sins of omissions on my head here Miss Lascelles but pray let me hear from you and tell me all about yourself and what society you have in Killough now - if it has improved or retrograded? I was surprised to hear of some weddings, Betty McClusky for instance. Any more of Mrs Campbell's family married and how do the old couple look themselves. Nanny was poorly all winter but she has improve since. The winter was very severe. The river was frozen. The weather at Yellow Springs is just like what I have felt in Ireland in this month but in Cincinnati it was intolerably hot. I can sleep well at the springs from the coolness of the air. In the city one is in a fever with the heat and mosquitoes. Provisions are very high and times, as they say, have been very hard with working classes. My father, I think, has never heard from any of his old friends since he came to this country. I hope you will soon indulge me with a letter. I wear your ring very often and prize it much for your sake and is greatly admired. Do you ever see Catherine Crawford. Has Mrs Parkinson removed all her family to Belfast. Give them one and all my heartfelt love, the same to Mrs Surch and Joe lest I should not be able to write. Wishing you my Miss Lascelles every spiritual and temporal comfort. Believe me to remain your affectionate and attached,

Kate Rogan