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MISSISSIPPI A R( '.HA l:( )LO(J V
terms. They were reasonably comfortable all their lives, however. In the 1850s
them in the upper
1938:89-90).
Rebecca and Benjamin had ten children, two of whom died at birth. Three others passed away before they reached their fourth birthday (Sydnor 1938:84). Bouts with influenza, yellow fever, diphtheria, smallpox, and other diseases was a constant fact of life in nineteenth-century Mississippi, and the very young and the very old were the favorite victims of these maladies (Blain 1976:98, 105; Bowman 1904:436-37; Ellicott 1962:289-97; Fulkerson 1885a?b; Ingraham 1835, 2:163; James 1968:267?69; Jenkins 1903; Lincecum 1904a:493; Monette 1827; Riley 1906:201?3).
All his life Wailes was interested in real estate. He and his wife either inherited or purchased considerable plots of land in Mississippi. Even in the town of Washington, he owned severaHKyjies. ?Meadvilla,? the house that he and Rebecca moved into in 18<5?^^hehome wffi^which he is most associated. In territorial times it served as the residence of Governor Cowles Mead, and in 1813 it functioned as the Washington Hotel (Claiborne 1906:491?92; Phelps and Jennings n.d.:50; Rowland 1907, 2:213?14; Sydnor 1938:82). Wailes also owned or managed a lot of property in Warren County to the north. He owned 80 acres near the mouth of the Yazoo River and 10 acres on the Big Black River. Mrs. Wailes? plantation, known as ?Fonsylvania,? was also located in Warren County. It was built in 1825 by herTIncle^udge Alexander Covington, and called ?Fonsylvania? because of all the springs on it. Benjamin managed this plantation berween 1848 and 1850 and after 1855, when it officially became his wife?s property. ?Ivanhoe? was another Warren County plantation owned by Mrs. Wailes, ancffienjamin was also involved in the management of ?Kensington,? owned by his niece and ward, Susan C. Covington (Morris 1995:70, 75, 84?85, 100, 102, 160; Rowland 1907, 1:587; Sydnor 1938:88-89, 92-93).
Institutions and Associations
Long before Wailes established himself as a man of property, he was already a well-respected individual in his community. In 1824 he became a lieutenant colonel of the Fourth Mississippi Regiment. In that same year he also became a trustee of Jefferson College, a position he held for the next four decades. In 1825 he became President of the newly established Adams
Benjamin and Rebecca owned about 80 slaves, which put 1% of the slave-holding population inTT?region (Sydnor