Caroline Meriwether Goodlett

Caroline Douglas Meriwether Goodlett (November 3, 1833 – October 16, 1914) was an American philanthropist and the founding president general of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

Early life and family Goodlett was born on November 3, 1833, to Caroline Huntley Barker and Charles Nicholas Minor Meriwether at Woodstock, her family's plantation in Todd County, Kentucky.

On December 3, 1853, she married John Sturdevant. As a wedding present, her father gave her 300 acres of land near Woodstock, across the state line in Montgomery County, Tennessee. The property included a large two-story log house, where her father had lived prior to building Woodstock. She became a charter member of the Board of Confederate Monumental Association, funding the construction of Confederate monuments in Nashville. She was unaware that, at this time, another society bearing the name "Daughters of the Confederacy" was being run by Anna Davenport Raines in Georgia. Goodlett and Raines were made aware of each other's organizations and joined them together, extending invitations to similar women' societies in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Missouri to create the National Association of the Daughters of the Confederacy. When the organization became a national organization in 1894, Goodlett was elected as the first president. In 1905 she was recognized as the organization's founder at the General Convention in San Francisco.