Meriwether, Elizabeth Avery

Elizabeth Avery was born in Bolivar, Tennessee in 1824 to Nathan and Rebecca (Rivers) Avery. Her father was a physician and her mother was the daughter of a Virginia planter. After the family had relocated to Memphis, both parents died, leaving their five children destitute. To help support herself and her siblings, Elizabeth operated a small school for two dozen students in the family's dining room. She married Minor Meriwether, a railroad civil engineer, in 1852 and in fulfillment of his late father's will, the couple sold part of Minor's inherited land in order to free his slaves and repatr...