Born in 1814, Eliza Harlan's biography exemplifies the life and challenges faced by Southern women before and after the Civil War. Her parents probably arranged her first marriage to a cousin. She was only 13 years old. When she was 26, her first husband died leaving her with four living children. Thereafter, she married three more times. She had children by her first and third husbands. Her first child by her first husband married a relative of her second husband. Her second child by her first husband married a relative of her third husband. Although her formal education was limited (she first married at age 13), she was an avid reader. Her fourth husband and a child by her third husband, Oscar Dunlap, established the Nicholas P. Sims Library in Waxahachie, Texas, the first privately endowed library in Texas. Another child, Samuel M. Dunlap, Jr., established the Samuel M. Dunlap Memorial Library in Italy, Texas. Later, Ely Green, a mulatto person, wrote a biography "Too Black, Too White," and dedicated the book to her son, Oscar Dunlap. Her grandson Oliver Harlan Cross served in the United States House of Representatives.