... Elector for Polk and Dallas two years later, and gained high repute as a debater in a tilt with the famous Sergeant S. Prentiss. In February, 1845, he married Miss Varina Banks Howell, daughter of Colonel William Burr Howell , native of New Jersey, who had moved to Mississippi and wedded the daughter of the Virginia settler. This marriage was a most congenial and helpful one to the already rising young statesman. No...