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Ian W. Brown
I5?)
Beginnings
Benjamin Leonard Covington Wailes was born in Georgia on August 1, 1797. He was the eldest child of five. His father was Levin Wailes and his mother Eleanor Davis. They came to Mississippi in 1807 from the ancestral Wailes home in Prince George County, Maryland, along the shore of Chesapeake Bay. Benjamin was ten years old when his family moved to the town of Washington, Mississippi, located several miles east of Natchez (Clark andGuice 1989:168; James 1968:164; Lloyd 1981:443; Riley 1902b:283-84; Sydnor 1938:30-36; White 1902:260-61). Although it is not much to look at now, in JJK17 Washington was certainly the place to be. As both the
anc^ c^e county seat for Adams County, itwas a thriving community ofabout 1000 people. It had three hotels, a college (Jefferson College), a fort (Fort Dearborn), and, of course, politicians galore. But at the same time it was a small and informal capital, as nearby Natchez competed for most of the glamour. Consequently, it was relatively easy for Benjamin, despite his young age, to observe and grasp most of what was going on around him. He was able to establish boundaries for his universe and have some control over understanding it (Blain 1976; Claiborne 1880:258-260; Clark andGuice 1989:184-85; Davis 1995:115-17; Ingraham 1835, 2:220-21; Lowry and McCardle 1978:195?96; Morrison 1899; Rowland 1907, 1:729?30, 960?65; 2:932?34; Rowland 1925, 1:384-89; Sydnor 1938:40-43).
In the early nineteenth century, as Benjamin was growing up, the town of Washington was rapidly becoming the intellectual center of the region. In addition to a newspaper, a reading room^S^^RK^ming territorial library, there were Jefferson College for boys, which Benjamin attended, and the nearby Elizabeth Female Academy for girls (Blain 1976:73?74, 92? 93; Brandon 1899:214-15; Davis 1995:172-78; Galloway 1899; Ingraham 1835, 2:161?63; James 1968:223?27; Rowland 1907:672,960?65; Rowland 1925, 1:499-501; Sydnor 1938:128).
In 1820, when Benjamin was 22, he married his cousin Rebecca Covington. They had grown up together, and although she was five years younger than he, they had been taught jointly by the same tutor (Sydnor 1938:47,64). The Covingtons were relatively wealthy folk, but Benjamin and his wife cannot be said to have been rich?certainly not in Natchez