Chloe Merrick
(1832-1897)

Died aged c. 65

Chloe Merrick was born in Syracuse, New York in 1832. She taught in Syracuse public schools from 1854 to 1856, and in 1863 responded to a plea to help with slaves who had fled to the Union Army lines. Arriving in Fernandina, she found more than 700 African-Americans living on Amelia Island. She opened a Freedmen’s School where she taught and helped the needy. Merrick also organized the Orphan Asylum at Fernandina and is the only educator cited by name in the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands monthly education reports from Florida. In 1869 she married Harrison M. Reed, governor of Florida, influencing legislation to address social problems, including education and relief for the poor. Chloe Merrick Reed died in 1897.

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Chloe Merrick (1832–1897) was an American educator who worked to educate and improve the welfare of freedmen and their children. She established a school on Amelia Island, Florida during and after the American Civil War. In addition to teaching, she conducted appeals to her hometown of Syracuse, New York for contributions of money, goods, and clothes. She also established an orphanage. She later taught freedmen in North Carolina, where she moved for her health. In 1869, Merrick married Florida Republican Governor Harrison M. Reed. She is believed to have influenced his administration in its support for education and welfare for all residents. Public education was expanded in the state in the early 1870s for both black and white children. After Reed left office, Merrick continued to work on those issues, serving in Jacksonville, Florida for several years on the board of the new St. Luke's Hospital Association in the 1880s, which founded the city's first hospital.

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