Elizabeth Edmonds Avery Meriwether was born in Bolivar, Tennessee January 19, 1824 to Nathan and Rebecca Jones Rivers Avery.  Her father was a physician-farmer and her mother was the daughter of a Virginia planter.  Elizabeth had two sisters (Amanda and Cornelia Estelle), and a brother, William Tecumsah Avery.  According to her book, the family lived in a log cabin home.   It was a comfortable life.

Bolivar:  The Pillars House- 1826

Bolivar:  Courthouse

In 1835, when she was 11 years old, financial difficulties prompted the family's  move to Memphis.  Elizabeth's father died there in 1846, followed by her mother's death the next year.  To make ends meet, her brother, William had to go to work while she and a sister operated a small school in their home.  There are no listings for the family at this time in the Memphis directories so we don't know where they lived in the city. 

Memphis c. 1860

William T. Avery

W. T. Avery Bio

Amada Avery

In 1852 Elizabeth married Minor Meriwether an engineer and a lawyer.  His late father had asked the couple to sell their inherited land and to free the slaves and then repatriate them to Liberia (Later Elizabeth will accept a gift of a household slave from her brother).  Their marriage was a happy union and they had three sons - Avery, in 1857, Rivers, in 1859, and Lee, in 1862.  Lee, of course was named for General Robert E. Lee.  Based on the Memphis Directories, the Meriwethers lived at 35 Monroe Avenue during the early years  of their marriage.  Minor's brother Niles lived in Memphis and was also an engineer.  He married Lide Smith who will become another prominent Memphis Suffragist .

When the Civil War began, Minor Meriwether joined the Confederate army and served with Nathan Bedford Forrest, as an engineer officer.  Most of his war duty was constructing defenses and building and re-building railroads.    Elizabeth is left alone to raise two boys while she is pregnant with the third.  It's during this period that she becomes very vocal in her defense of the Confederate "cause".  Soon Memphis will fall and Union forces will occupy the city under the control of General Grant and William T. Sherman.  To disagreed with them made one subject to arrest and the infamous  Irving Block prison.  Elizabeth bitterly resented the Union forces and became so defiant that, after several encounters, Sherman orders her to leave Memphis in 1862, just weeks before the birth of her son.  (She will write about this experience later in "The Refugee").  

Civil War

On the road as a refugee Elizabeth tries to find her husband's unit but ultimately gives birth in a stranger's home, along the road.  She then resorts to stealing corn and selling clothing in order to have food for her children.  She even slipped back into Memphis to pay the taxes on her property so it wouldn't be sold at auction.  Eventually Tuscaloosa, Alabama became the end of the road.  While in Tuscaloosa, Elizabeth begins to write again, a pleasure she had enjoyed as a child.  She won a competition sponsored by the Selma Daily Mississippian offering $500 for the best short story dealing with the war.  Elizabeth wrote "The Refugee" based on her experiences and won.  This success encouraged her to continue writing.  She then wrote "The Yankee Spy" and a newspaper planned to publish it, but that project fell through. 

Elizabeth

After the war, Minor Meriwether purchased a Memphis home for the family at 95 Union Avenue, on a lot were the current Peabody Hotel is located.  Since Memphis had been occupied during the war, it hadn't suffered the destruction that most of the South did and it was now ready for big growth.   Nathan Forrest returned home, and Jefferson Davis now lived in the city after his pardon.  And so did the "Carpetbaggers".  Everyone hated this forced "Reconstruction".  There were rumors that Minor Meriwether assisted Nathan B. Forrest in forming the Ku Klux Klan, and that one of the early meetings was held in Elizabeth Meriwether's kitchen.  In 1877 the Meriwether family moved to 253 Beale for 6 years.  We've not been able to locate any reason for this move.

War Ends

Elizabeth's family home had been confiscated by the Union during the war.  She now petitioned General Stephen A. Hurlburt in an effort to regain title and was finally successful in her endeavor.  Ironically she was now a legal property owner and a tax payer.  Thus she was entitled to vote.  But women couldn't vote!  Yet she persisted and was able to obtain a voter registration in 1872 and in 1876 she went to the polls and /they actually let her vote.  Of course her vote wasn't counted, but the important thing to her was that she had actually voted.  And to her knowledge, she and Susan B. Anthony were the only two American Women who had ever voted.    Afterwards she rented the Memphis Theatre and held a meeting to explain her beliefs. 

During the 1870s, Elizabeth combined her writing along with her interest in social reform.  She became one of first suffragettes in the South and was one of the first women in the state to publicly push for women's suffrage.  She wrote letters to the editor of newspapers and published a pamphlet about women's rights.  In 1872 she published a small newspaper "The Tablet" showcasing her own unique views of women's issues, divorce law, as well as equal pay for women teachers.  In 1876 she held the first public meeting in Tennessee for women's rights, and made one of the first public suffragist speeches in Memphis.  She was active in the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and belonged to the National Women Suffrage Association, serving as a national officer in 1887.  She also presented suffrage petitions at both the Democratic and Republican national conventions in 1880. 

In 1881 she joined Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony on a speaking tour of New England.  In her book she quotes a Northern newspaper which said "her keen sarcasm, wit and humor caused frequent bursts of laughter and applause".  Later Elizabeth's sister-in-law, Lide A. Meriwether will form the first suffrage league in Memphis in 1889 - and the first in the state.   Together, they are an unmatched pair.

To his credit, Minor Meriwether always supported Elizabeth's efforts and from the very beginning insisted on an equal partnership.  To him, what was his, was hers.

Suffrage History

1877 Letter to Editor

1877 Constitution

1882 Lectures

1882 Letter to Senate

1886 Speech

1919 "Passes"

Elizabeth Meriwether's published works include two novels, "The Master of Red Leaf" (1872), describes life on a southern plantation before the Civil War and it present a justification of secession, and "Black and White" (1883), plus a play, "The Ku Klux Klan, or The Carpetbagger in New Orleans" (1877).  Her other works include "Facts and Falsehoods about the War on the South", which was published under the pseudonym George Edmonds in 1904, and "The Sowing of the Swords" (1910).  Her last written work was a memoir "Recollections of 92 Years" which was serialized in many newspapers in 1916.  Her son Lee, published his mother's memoir as a book in 1958.

Most of Elizabeth's works deal with the South before the war and she always refused to acknowledge that slavery had been a moral or social evil.  She will continue to believe that the Civil War was not about slavery but about "States Rights".  In addition, her writing continued to  idealize the Confederate "cause" as well as the traditional racial stereotype of the OLD South,  complete with black characters who were happy, carefree, childlike, and totally unable to govern themselves without the confines of slavery.  It seems to defy belief that a person so dedicated to "Women's Rights"  was unable to acknowledge "Civil Rights" for all. 

Elizabeth Meriwether's novels and writings are still available from publishers and on the internet ...

1880 Review

"The Tablet"

1916

1904

1904

The Meriwether boys grew into well educated and highly respected young men.  They all became lawyers like their father, and they also wrote, like their mother.  In 1882, Avery and Lee organized a weekly newspaper called "Free Trader" and published it from their office at 245 2nd Street.  After a few issues, they were advised that the title was confusing and the name was changed to "Meriwether's Weekly ".  The newspaper was devoted to literary, social and political criticism and was a well respected weekly, throughout the U.S.   Around 1882 the Meriwether family moves from the Beale address to 286 Union Av.

1882 "M W"

1883  M.W.

M W

1883 M W

1883 Article

1883 Final       

There are also sad times among the good times for the family including an early death for their first born son, Avery in 1883.  Newspapers in various parts of the country will print obituaries for him ... and Elizabeth writes a special "memory"  as her therapy in losing a child.     In 1896 the second Meriwether son, Rivers suddenly dies  -  a  "mysterious death" . (Complete coverage of the death in "Obit-2" below)

Avery's Obit     

Mother's Memory

Avery Tribute

Who's Who1903

Their son Lee marries in 1888  - for the 1st time.  He will marry three times and live to be 103, outliving all three of his children as well as his three wives.  Although trained as a lawyer, his passion was writing and traveling.  He combined both in his 1887 book  "How to see Europe on Fifty Cents a day".  Lee was an interesting character who loved adventures.  He really should be  explored individually rather than as a son .  His many books and articles are still available from Publishers and on the Internet.  The "Who's Who" article (above) is interesting to compare how much space is devoted to Lee and how much to his mother.

Lee Meriwether

Minor and Elizabeth moved to St. Louis circa 1884-85  to avoid another Yellow Fever epidemic.  Elizabeth was 60 years old and Minor was 57.  Minor continued to practice law there until his death.  

Minor and Elizabeth built the Meriwether Mansion in the late 1800s in what was then the most fashionable neighborhood in St. Louis - 3716 Delmar Blvd - Grandel Square.    The home is still there and has recently been renovated.

Elizabeth

A life size bronze statute in Knoxville, Tennessee commemorates Lizzie Crozier French, Anne Dallas Dudley and Elizabeth Avery Meriwether,  three Tennessee women's rights pioneers who fought for passage of the 19th amendment, giving women the right to vote in 1920.  This statue by sculptor Alan LeQuire, was erected in Market Square 86 yeas after the ratification of the 19th amendment.  Elizabeth is shown on the left representing West Tennessee.    Elizabeth and Anne also have Historical markers in Memphis and in Nashville.  We have not located a marker for Lizzie.

Suffrage Monument    

Elizabeth died in St. Louis November 4, 1916, at the age of 92.  She lived long enough to see each political party finally adopt campaign planks urging passage of a woman's suffrage amendment - but not quite long enough to see it pass.

Minor died 6  years before in 1910.  Both are buried at the St. Louis Bellefontaine Cemetery along with sons Rivers and Lee.  Avery was buried at Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis.