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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