Z 2063.000 Runnels (H.G.)-Wailes (B.L.C.) Letters

Z 2063.000
RUNNELS (H. G.)-WAILES (B. L. C.) LETTERS

Hiram G. Runnels, son of Harmon and Hester Runnels, was born in Hancock County, Georgia, on December 15, 1796. The Runnels family moved to Lawrence County, Mississippi Territory, in 1810. Hiram G. Runnels served as a private in the War of 1812. Runnels was a member of the Mississippi constitutional convention of 1817. He served as Mississippi auditor of public accounts from 1822 to 1830. Runnels also married Aurelia Smith of Hinds County during this time. He was a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1830 and again in 1841. Runnels served as Mississippi governor from 1833 to 1835. He was later president of the Union Bank of Mississippi. Runnels moved to Texas in 1842. He became a state senator and helped draft the Texas constitution. Runnels died on December 17, 1857. He is buried in Glenwood Cemetery in Houston, Texas.

Benjamin Leonard Covington Wailes was born in Georgia on August 1, 1797. He was the eldest son of Levin Wailes (1768-1847) and Eleanor Davies Wailes (1773-1841), formerly of Maryland. Wailes accompanied his parents to the Mississippi Territory in 1807, settling at Washington in Adams County. He was educated at nearby Jefferson College, and he later taught there. Wailes was elected to the board of trustees of that institution in 1824, serving until the end of his life. He also served as treasurer of the board of trustees from 1837 to 1854.

On March 30, 1820, B. L. C. Wailes married a distant cousin, Rebecca Susanna Magruder Covington, daughter of Brigadier General Leonard Covington, and the couple had ten children. A member of the Whig Party, Wailes was elected as an Adams County representative to the Mississippi legislature, and he served from 1825 to 1826. He opposed secession from the Union despite his vested interests as a planter and slave owner. Wailes was employed as registrar of the land office at Washington, Mississippi, from 1826 to 1835, during which time he also managed several cotton plantations.

Pursuing geological and geographical interests throughout much of his life, B. L. C. Wailes assembled natural history collections for Jefferson College, worked as a surveyor, and associated with John J. Audubon, J. Louis Agassiz, Joseph Henry, Joseph Leidy, and Benjamin Silliman. Wailes was appointed as assistant professor of agriculture and geological sciences at the University of Mississippi, Oxford, in 1852, and in this capacity he published a Report on the Agriculture and Geology of Mississippi, Embracing a Sketch of the Social and Natural History of the State in 1854. He organized the Mississippi Historical Society in November of 1858, and he became that organizations first president. Wailes was serving as president of the board of trustees of Jefferson College when he died in November of 1862.

This collection consists of one document containing two letters. The first, dated March 15, 1837, is from H. G. Runnels, Benton, Yazoo County, Mississippi, to B. L. C. Wailes, Washington, Adams County, Mississippi. Runnels was replying to a previous letter by Wailes concerning resolutions of the board of trustees of Jefferson College. He discussed general financial matters concerning the college. Wailes replied to Runnels on March 21, 1837, on the verso of the document. He assured Runnels that he would contact the board of trustees immediately, and he thanked Runnels for assisting the colleges transition through a trying economic period.

1. Letters. 1837. 1 folder.