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(Letter from Bishop Polk to {struckthrough: Bishop} Mr Rayner)

Selma, Alabama

Dec. 3, I857

My dear Rayner,

You are again I am glad to hear restored to your
usual health after severe attack you had in the summer, knowing
the severity of those low country fevers I was quite uneasy for /
{insert symbol: you & I had hoped to hear from you mention of} your restoration. I have been a miserable sinner as a corres-
pondent with you in times past, but I fear if I have to write
you much oftener without hearing from you I shall not only
have retrieved my reputation but brought you in debt. This is
I think the third letter I have despatched you without having
succeeded in extracting a reply. What have you to do that so
engrosses you, you cannot let us know of the welfare of your-
self, your wife, & bairnes?

I am here to visit my son William who is at school
in the neighborhood & am so far on my return home after the
meeting of the Board of Trustees of our proposed University.
I do not know that you have followed the movement. It has
gone steadily onward since its inauguaration, requiring in the
mean season constant supervision & energetic action, that all
have endeavored to see supplied.

After the meeting in Pha & the issuing the address,
a copy of which I sent you, the subject was brought before our
Dioceses by the Bishops respectively & endorsed by our conven-
tions. Trustees were elected according to the original idea & a
meeting for organization appointed on the 4th July. That meet-
ing was held, the organization completed & a committee of one
from each state appointed to collect information on the subject
of a location & another to prepare a charter. These commit-