Sarah Elizabeth Shorter Hunter was the wife of James Lingard Hunter. It is not known if she is buried here in the Hunter-Merrill Cemetery. However, there is an unmarked grave between her husband and daughter's grave.

In 1837 she married James Lingard Hunter. She was the eldest daughter of General Reuben Clark Shorter, another first family of Alabama and Georgia. Sarah's brother, John Gill Shorter, was Alabama's Governor during the War Between the States. Her brother's Eli and Henry were prominent citizens and politicians in their own right.) Her father was one of the largest landowners in Randolph County (now Quitman County) Georgia. It is believe that, Sarah's husband, James Lingard Hunter was his father-in-law's plantation manager. James is noted for the extensive entries he made in the plantation's farm (or gardening) book.

August 2016: It was recently learned that Sarah Elizabeth Shorter Hunter might have married a Wilson M. Bates, after the death of her first husband James Lingard Hunter. Wilson M. Bates is buried in Old Fairview Cemetery, but there is no gravestone or listing for Sarah in Fairview. Sarah had a few children by James Lingard Hunter (one is Mary Elizabeth Hunter Roquemore) and it is believe other children with Wilson M. Bates. There are several Bates buried in Fairview. This is believed to be a picture of Sarah.

From The University of Alabama Collections (found at https://www.lib.ua.edu)more info: Sarah Elizabeth Shorter was born in Georgia around 1814. The daughter of Reuben C. and Mary Shorter, Sarah and her family moved to Eufaula, Alabama, around 1837. She married James L. Hunter, and they had daughters: Ann, Sarah and Mary. James Hunter died in 1847. Sarah's date of death is unclear.

This collection includes Sarah's book. She begin this as a young, unmarried woman in the 1830s. She used an album, printed by J. C. Riker, New York, that contains several prints of primarily New York-related engravings. The book contains recipes, poetry, quotations, notes from friends and family, and news clippings.

She numbered the ninety-nine pages and included an index to the recipes. Examples of dishes and household items include beer, fried eggplant, tea cakes, numerous puddings (apple, potato, transparent, boiled, and others), milk toast, baked tomatoes, and cologne.

The only recorded date is 1835, but the book contains clippings from the 1890s.