Wheatland, Pa., Nov. 6, 1866.

My dear Mrs. Cobb:

How long I have had it in my heart to write you, how many times I have even gone so far as to put your name at the head of a sheet of paper, I cannot now begin to say. But I do assure you that we have all thought and talked of you and dear Mr. Cobb many and many an hour since the sad parting in 1861, that we have wondered about your fortunes and hoped for your welfare, that I have promised Father and Mother a hundred times that I would write you. But my epistolary performances are less frequent than formerly as might be expected in the case of an elderly matron of grave cares. I have been sick much of the time and have also been much saddened by the ill health of Mr. Shunk.

York is our headquarters, but we have been away from there a great deal, spending several months at a time in Philadelphia, where for a while Mr. S. edited the "Age". This winter our house and Mother's have both been rented with the furniture — Mother going to Washington and we coming here to spend the winter (or most of it) with Mr. Buchanan, as Mr. S. is engaged on a literary work which he can prosecute better here than anywhere else, and Mr. Buchanan since Miss Lane has gone, is much pleased to have Company. He is now 76 years old, but hale, hearty, and erect as ever, has scarcely any signs of old age, hears and sees as sharply as he ever did, and enjoys fun and society as much as any person. He takes his long walk every day, receives a good many visitors, pays an occasional visit in Lancaster, goes on Sunday to the Presbyterian church, of which he is a member, reads the papers, and takes an interest in all that goes on. He is as fond as ever of teasing, as I realize every day.

This house is a dear old comfortable place. Jane is devoted to the country and enjoys running about the grounds or accompanying her father and me on our daily walks. Mr. Shunk who was ill all summer, is improving very much, and so we hope to have a pleasant winter. Yet I don't make plans any more or ever feel secure, for tho' my life has been exempt from what are considered great troubles I have seen enough of disappointment and trial to subdue my spirit in some degree.

Father has the house in which Capt. Maffit lived, just opposite Franklin Row on K. Street. It has been rented altered and is very handsomely furnished. He has rented it for six months. My eldest brother, Chauncey is in partership with Father: he, his wife and child live with them. My second brother is practicing law, or at least renting an office, in Uniontown, Pa. My eldest sister Mary is with Mother, and Nannie, the younger, is at a boarding school near Philadelphia. Father has been much absorbed in farming a place he plays with near York. It has been very beneficial to his health, but less so to his purse. He continues to buy property when it is high and sell when it is low, but his heart and hand are ever open — none so good as this dear father of mine.

Mother's health has been very bad, for a year she was a terrible sufferer and greatly changed in appearance, but she is better the past few months, much better. They have Mr. Clement C. Clay staying with them just now. I need not (I hope) tell you how we suffered with our Southern friends during the wicked war, how our hearts bled as we heard of their sorrows and privations, and how none of us ever said a word or did a deed which could in any way favor or help the vile cause of the abolition Yankee.

Mr. Shunk was mobbed very near the beginning of the war, we broke with many friends on account of politics. We felt political bonds to be the strongest on earth, for friendship and religion were trampled in the dust. Our feeling and sympathies knew no change. We regretted and disapproved secession, but as a thing wrong in itself, but unwise and mistaken, but when once the ball began and we saw how it was carried on our hopes and wishes were all one way. We felt our position to be more unfortunate than any other, as we could act on neither one side or the other, and were condemned and misunderstood all around. However we had plenty of company. York is a splendid copperhead region. Indeed you people don't know the friends you have in the North and you do us great injustice. My great and only objection to my "Southern brethren" and I will add sisters, is that they are too hard on all Northern people, making no distinction, between a low mischevous Yankee and an honest decent person from Pennsylvania. They are too proud and intolerant, generally, but to this class I'm quite sure you and yours do not belong. I never for a moment supposed it, or my heart would not so often have traveled over land, rivers, and armies to your Southern home or have so earnestly prayed for your deliverance.

I am scribbling too much, forgetting myself — tho' Jane and Mr. S. have both been worrying me to quit ever since the first page. I hope I shall hear from you very soon and hear much that is pleasant of you. I want to know all about your children. Mrs. Ellis of Alabama has been visiting at this house. We were so much pleased with her.

With much love to Mr. Cobb, kindest remembrances from Mr. S. and Mr. Buchanan to both of you, I must now hastily sign myself, very sincerely.