Your letter of the 27th Feby [February] with one to your Sister Mary came in due time. Nothing can be more gratifying to us than to know that you have weathered in safety the exposures of the past winter, and that the period draws nearer and nearer when we may be blessed again with your presence in the family circle I have written to you twice since my return, but fear that you do not receive letters addressed from this point. We are again well arranged in our household matters and by the time you reach us hope to have our house newly papered and painted, so that should you or Mary wish to marry, our friends may meet in cumfort [comfort] to partake of our happiness.

John is at school with Mr Hume in Nashville . Rachel is at the female academy. Both are doing well. The other children are at home. Last sunday we had our infant, born since our return, christened. Her name is Catharine.

I have recently returned from Mississippi where I am trying to make another crop, but would sell the place if I could get a reasonable price. That climate is becoming almost as uncertain as this for cotton and is far less favorable to the other agricultural products.

Among the changes in the neighborhood there are none that strike me more forcibly than that which has occurred in the religious sentiment. The congregation at our church has dwindled to almost nothing and exhibits but little of the fervor which prevailed when you were a boy. Nashville and its nieghbourhood [neighborhood] used then to visit us and our church was a point at which the talented and brilliant ministers of

the gospel delighted to stop. Now it is with difficulty that we obtain a preacher. But I hope there will soon be a reaction and that when you come again things will wear a better aspect, and our society become again distinguished for its support of religion and good order.

I am saving a good horse for you and will have ready for you a body servant.

Take care of your constitution, and remember that of all the gifts of God that of good health is the most precious. we may struggle against poverty but without health there is no capacity for the acquisition of any of the cumforts of life.

I will write you evry [every] month. Accept the prayers of all the family for your safety and happiness, and our hopes that you may join us again before the year is gone

Yr. [Your] affectionate father

A J [Andrew Jackson] Donelson

Lieut. [Lieutenant] A J Donelson

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Lieut A J Donelson