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The First Survey Through Hal's Lake Swamp Page 7
of Orleans".32 During the War of 1812, he served as a Lieutenant
in a Louisiana outfit,33 and moved to Opelousas until 1822.34On January 10, 1822 he was appointed Surveyor General of
Mississippi35 and ten days later, also of Louisiana.36 By fall of
1822, Wailes was "surveyor of the United States Lands south of
Tennessee".37 His correspondence in that post was directed to him
at Washington, Mississippi, which is about six miles northeast of
Natchez on Highway 61. From information about a grandson,38 we
know that the family remained around Natchez for some time.In 1822 Wailes hired John James Audubon for six weeks to teach
art at the Elizabeth Female Academy of Washigton,39 and invited
Audubon to Wailes' plantation in Louisiana (across from Natchez),
where Audubon drew the orchard oriole and tyrant flycatcher, plates
42 and 79 of Birds of America.40In his least years Levin lived with his son Benjamin at
Washington, Mississippi, until his death on May 24, 1847, in his
eightieth year.41 Presumably he is buried near his children in the
family graveyard, which is probably at his son's plantation
"Meadvilla", just south of Natchez.
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32Id. at40.
3316th Regiment (Thompson's) Louisiana Militia. M.J.B
PIERSON, LOUISIANA SOLDIERS IN THE WAR OF 1812 (1963) p. 12134Id.
35C. A. WHITE, A HISTORY OF THE RECTANGULAR SURVEY SYSTEM (U.S. Dep't Interior) p. 211.
36Id. at 207.
37Id. at 76.
38George Bell Newell Wailes, born in 1828 on Laurel Hill
Plantation, Wilkinson County, Mississippi, to Edmund Howard Wailes
(son of Levin Wailes) and Jane Bell Newell. A Dictionary of
Louisiana Biography, Vol. II, p. 817.39Id. at 129.
40Id.
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