Mary Elizabeth Myrick, the oldest of the Philomathean Founders, was 16 years old when she, along with Mary Ann DuPont (Lines) and Martha Bibb Hardaway (Redding), founded the Philomathean Society on January 4, 1852. Said to have been timid and retiring in nature, Mary Elizabeth is described as having a sweet face, dark hair, and dark eyes. Although, like most well-to-do women of her time, Mary Elizabeth had no formal profession, she served as a Sunday school teacher for many years.
Born on May 18, 1835, Mary Elizabeth was the only daughter of General Stith Parham Myrick of Georgia and his wife, whose name is disputed and was either Frances Peebles or Elizabeth Peeples. Mary Elizabeth graduated from Wesleyan in 1853 and in 1863 received a Masters of Arts degree, as it was then the custom of the College to award an honorary master's degree to distinguished students 10 years after graduation. In 1857, Mary Elizabeth married Henry Kelse Daniel, a Sumter County planter and eventual Major in the Confederacy Army during the Civil War. Mary Elizabeth and Henry had six children, but two of them died in childhood and two more died as young adults. Only two of Mary Elizabeth's children would outlive their mother: a son, Myrick Daniel and a daughter, Lila Peebles Daniel.
After only 13 years of marriage, Mary Elizabeth became a widow at the age of 35 after her husband's untimely death in 1870. Although still a young woman, Mary Elizabeth's health declined after her husband's death and she passed away at age 46 on July 14, 1881. She is buried beside her husband in the Oak Grove Cemetery in Amercus, Georgia.
