Caroline Elizabeth Merrick
Caroline Elizabeth Merrick (November 24, 1825 – March 29, 1908) was an American writer and temperance worker. She is the author of Old Times in Dixie Land: a Southern Matron's Memories (1901). Taking an active part in the charitable and philanthropic movements of New Orleans, she served as president of the Ladies' Sanitary and Benevolent Association, of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and of the Woman's League of Louisiana. Early life and education Caroline Elizabeth Thomas was born on Cottage Hall Plantation, East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, on November 24, 1825. Her father was Capt. David Thomas (1777-1849), who belonged to a prominent South Carolina family. A veteran of the Battle of New Orleans, David Thomas was a trustee of the college which later became the Centenary College of Louisiana. Her mother was Elizabeth Patillo, who died in 1833. She was educated by governesses at home. Career Merrick devoted the first 20 years of her married life to raising a family. At that time, the temperance cause was being widely agitated in the South, and some women favored the movement. She became at once president of a local union, and filled the position of State president