Meriwether, Lide Parker Smith, 1829-

Lide Parker Smith Meriwether was born in Columbus, Ohio. When she was seventeen, she and her sister, L. Virginia Smith, went to the southwest to work as teachers. In 1855 she married Niles Meriwether, a civil engineer. They settled in Memphis, Tenn., and had three daughters. In 1872, Meriwether published Soundings, a book that pleaded the cause of "fallen women," for which she had worked since at least 1859. Her reform work intensified when she joined the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She was president of the WCTU of Tennessee, 1884-1897, and made it a large and active organization. Meriwether was also president of Tennessee's suffrage association and won national recognition as a leader and speaker in the campaign for women's rights.