History of Feliciana, (East Baton Rouge Parish) Louisiana United States of America

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Caroline Elizabeth Merrick, author, was born in "Cottage Hall," East Feliciana, La., Nov. 24, 1825; daughter of Capt. David and Elizabeth (Patillo) Thomas. Her father was a native of Edgefield district, S.C., and the Patillos were Virginians. Captain Thomas served in the war of 1812, removed to Louisiana, where he was a wealthy planter, and afforded his daughter an excellent education. In 1840 she was married to Edwin T, Merrick . During the progress of the civil war she not only managed her plantation during her husband's absence but established a hospital for sick and wounded soldiers at Myrtle Grove, where she was the chief nurse. After the close of the war she became interested in the temperance work of Frances E. Willard and promoted it in the south at a time when it was exceedingly unpopular. She was elected president of the local temperance society and of the Louisiana State Christian Temperance Union, which latter position she held for ten years. She became an acceptable and convincing lecturer on the subject of temperance and on woman's right to a limited suffrage, on which subject she addressed the legislature of Louisiana and was instrumental in securing a law entitling tax-paying women to the privilege of voting on any matter affecting the rate of taxes on the property owned by them. She represented Louisiana in the meetings of the Woman's International Council and in the Woman's National American association held in Washington, D.C., in 1886. She was secretary of St. Anna's Asylum for Aged and Destitute Women and Children for twelve years; president of the Ladies' Sanitary and Benevolent association; president of the Woman's Foreign Missionary society; president of the Woman Suffrage Association for Louisiana until 1900, when she was elected honorary vice-president for life. She is the author of: Old Times in Dixie Land: A Southern Matron's Memories (1900).

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Feliciana, (East Baton Rouge Parish) Louisiana

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