Maria Cook Maria Cook (1779-December 21, 1835) was the first Universalist woman preacher in America. A traveling evangelist during the early 1810s, she preached before many audiences in New York State and Pennsylvania and was well received for a few years. Little is known of her early life. The Cook family lived in Geneva, in western New York State. Her father died before Cook was thirty and left his children some modest wealth. uua.org