The Elusive Miss Kerr, posted on June 10, 2025

Sue Lizzie Kerr (1835 or so-1922)

I came across Sue Lizzie Kerr almost by accident.

Her mother’s name was Euphemia, and if that was not unusual enough, Euphemia’s maiden name was Doak. Euphemia Doak married William M. Kerr in 1823 and went on to have six children before she and her husband passed away within a year of each other. The children were sent to stay with relatives until they were old enough to support themselves. Sue Lizzie, along with her older sister Eliza was sent to stay with their great uncle Samuel Kerr and his family.

Sue Lizzie Kerr or S. Lizzie Kerr as she signed her correspondence, was one of those women Laurel Thatcher Ulrich described as “well-behaved,” who consequently “seldom make history.” She had been orphaned at an early age and was sent to live with relatives and then boarding school until she was able to earn her own living as a teacher. Her senior thesis, written at Edgeworth Female Seminary (Greensboro, NC), was entitled, The Companionship of Books, a suitable subject for a lonely girl.

Her more famous brother, Washington Caruthers Kerr (1827-1885), whom she outlived by about three decades, was much celebrated as the State Geologist for North Carolina. I say “about”, as Sue Lizzie’s death certificate indicated that her birth year was no longer known, but that she was “about” eighty-eight years old when she died.

In early January, 1883, Sue Lizzie was teaching in Stateville, North Carolina, at Simonton Female Academy. She received a wedding invitation in the mail from her cousin Robert and despite being very busy closing out her semester, she intended to write back right away.

The wedding was not a surprise. Robert and Lizzie had been engaged for some time. In fact, they had known each other since they were children and neither had considered marrying anyone else. They had met when Robert’s parents, who lived on a farm a few miles south of what is now Mebane, North Carolina, enrolled him in a school run by Lizzie’s father, Samuel Wellwood Hughes in nearby Cedar Grove. After Robert graduated, the couple had kept in touch by letter and the occasional visit and of course their families knew each other very well.

The fall term was coming to a close and Sue Lizzie, being good at math, was expected to manage the student accounts in addition to her teaching duties. Whether she liked it or not, her salary depended on it. She hoped to get away as soon as possible, but informed Robert that she would most likely miss the wedding ceremony.

Parents at Simonton did not make collecting tuition and fees any easier. They often dropped their daughters off well past the start of term and often brought them home before final exams. Tuition and fees were pro-rated, based on the pupil’s time in residence. A record of each girl’s financial transactions, including their incidental purchases, were recorded in hand-written ledgers.

The school did provide a rigorous curriculum for those who wanted it,  as well as the more ornamental arts, but some parents just wanted their daughters to get some polish before they started looking for husbands.

Despite her busy schedule, Sue Lizzie wrote back promptly on January 3, 1883, to update Robert on her plans. She promised to send his two younger sisters, Sudie (Susan Elizabeth)  and Mamie (Mary), who were pupils at Simonton, home early so they could help with the wedding preparations. And, she gratefully accepted his invitation to stay with his family for a few weeks after the school semester ended.

The idea of home was elusive and bittersweet for Sue Lizzie Kerr. She was orphaned as a young girl and grew up in the homes of kindly relatives. Embedded as she was in a large and loving family, Sue Lizzie was acutely aware of the fact that unlike most of her relatives, she had no home of her own, no place to go back to. Between teaching jobs, she would ask to stay with relatives, storing her traveling trunks in their attics, until her next engagement. She spent most of her life in North Carolina, moving to Asheville at some point, probably to be near her brother who during the last years of his life, traveled between Asheville and Florida.

So it came as somewhat of a surprse to learn that by the time Sue Lizzie died in Asheville, she owned two houses and was running a successful boarding house business. Her letters indicate that she rented out rooms to vacationers, some of whom were welcomed back and others not so much. Her niece Mamie, formerly a student at Simonton Female College, stayed with her often. Mamie would probably have stayed in Asheville, perhaps helping with the boarding house, but Robert’s wife Lizzie died in 1914, and Mamie moved back home to care for his younger children.

Sue Lizzie died in 1922. Her funeral was held in her home, on the second floor, either in her bedroom or a room across the hall. Her will was generous and she remembered a long list of relatives as well as several charities devoted to caring for orphans. More power to her.