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MISSISSIPPI ARCHAEOLOGY
The Agricultural, Horticultural, and Botanical Society of Jefferson College, established in 1839, replaced the Lyceum as the prime intellectual society in Washington. Wailes was its president until 1843, and a considerable part of' its success clearly should be credited to him. The focus of the society was on agricultural improvement. Meetings were always held in Washington, often in Wailes? home. For various reasons, interest in the society started to wane after 1843 (Bailey 1842; Bell 1899:202; Blain 1976:107-13; Sydnor 1938:152-64).
Wailes is perhaps best known for his work with the Geological Survey of Mississippi (Rowland 1907, 2:889). As stated above, the idea for such a survey stemmed out of the Jefferson College and Washington Lyceum in 1838. The legislature finally passed the desired law to establish the Survey?s existence in 1850. Wailes hoped to become the first State Geologist, but that honor went to Dr. John Millington, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Mississippi. Millington?s title was expanded to Professor of Chemistry, Geology and Agriculture to accommodate his new duties. Wailes was selected as Millington?s assistant and was essentially responsible for most of the fieldwork. He received $1000 a year with an additional $250 compensation to pay for two horses, a carriage, and a servant. He also received traveling expenses at the rate of $3 a day. The original plan was for Millington to supervise and direct the survey, analyze the minerals, soils, and water, and write the annual report. Wailes was to be the ?legman? for the survey, but it soon became apparent that Millington could not even keep up with his own obligations. Millington resigned in May of 1853, leaving Wailes with the task of writing the entire report. Wailes submitted a manuscript of 400 pages to the trustees of the University on January 9, 1854, but the geological parts were woefully incomplete, largely because they were supposed to be Millington?s contribution. The size of the final published report had to be reduced further because of inadequate funding (Rowland 1907, 1:763? 65; 2:244; Sydnor 1938:182-85,196-202; Wailes 1854).
Wailes could not get along with the next director of the Survey, Lewis Harper, so he himself resigned in 1854. Wailes must have been somewhat satisfied when he learned that Harper was soon dismissed by the University and left the state. ?The last Wailes heard of him was rumor that he was fleeing from Federal officers who were seeking to arrest him under a charge of evading custom duties (Sydnor 1938:202).?