How d'ye do?—I have quite a hankering to hear from, and see Jamaica, and the Jamaicaites.—A pressure of business, only, has preevented my coming out among the "friends of yore," and the familiar places which your village contains.—I was an hour in your village the other day, but did not have time to come up and see you,—I think of coming up in the course of the winter holidays.
Farewell,—and dont forget writing to me, through the P.O.—
May your kind angel hover in the invisible air, and lose sight of your blessed presence never
W Whitman loc_gk.01454_large.jpgCorrespondent:
Abraham Paul Leech
(1815–1886) was the son of Obadiah Paul Leech (1792–1881), an
auctioneer, and his wife, Susan Holland Leech. One of three children, Leech
would go on to become a bookkeeper and friend of Walt Whitman. Leech also served
as secretary pro tem of The Jamaica Lyceum in the 1840s in Jamaica, New York. He
and his wife, Phebe Kissam Duryea Leech (1823–1885) had two children:
Abraham Duryea Leech (1851–1876) and John Leech (1860–?).