Mary Leggett Cooke (1852-1938) was an American Unitarian minister.[1][2][3] She was a member of a group of women ministers, the Iowa Sisterhood,[4] who organized eighteen Unitarian societies in several Midwestern states in the late 19th century and early 20th century.[5]
Early life and education
Mary Lydia Leggett was born in Cayuga County, New York,[a] April 23, 1852. She was the daughter of Rev. William Leggett and Frelove Frost Leggett. From earliest childhood, she was a worshipper of the religion of nature.[2]
She was educated in Monticello Seminary, Godfrey, Illinois,[2] and Harvard Divinity School, with special study and travel in Egypt, Greece and Italy.[3]
Career
In 1887, she was formally ordained to the Liberal ministry in Kansas City, Missouri, Rev. Charles G. Ames, of Philadelphia, preaching her ordination sermon. She built and dedicated a church in Beatrice, Nebraska, of which she was minister until 1891, when she went to Boston, Massachusetts, and became minister of a sea-board parish 36 miles (58 km) from that city. Her church in Green Harbor, Massachusetts was founded by the granddaughter of the statesman, Daniel Webster, whose summer home was in that hamlet. Leggett's study contained the office-table on which Webster penned his speeches.[2] In that state, she also served at Dighton. Thereafter, she was at Fort Collins, Colorado, Wolfsboro, New Hampshire, and Revere, Massachusetts.[3]
Cooke was actively involved in social settlements and equal suffrage.[3]
Personal life
Her husband, Rev. George Willis Cooke, died a week after their wedding.[6]
Notes
- ^ Records differ as to whether she was born in Sempronius, Cayuga County, New York or Moravia, Cayuga County, New York.[2][3]
References
- ^ UUDB Admin (28 October 2000). "Cooke, George Willis". Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography. Retrieved 25 April 2024.
- ^ a b c d e Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). "LEGGETT, Miss Mary Lydia". A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life. Charles Wells Moulton. p. 456. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ a b c d e Leonard, John W. (1914). "LEGGETT, Mary Lydia". Woman's Who's who of America. American Commonwealth Company. p. 485. Retrieved 25 April 2024. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ "Remembering the Iowa Sisterhood". UUA.org. 2011-10-26. Retrieved 2018-11-08.
- ^ Hepokoski, Carol. "Women Ministers in the Prairie Star District". Bring, O Past, Your Honor. The Ministers Association of the Prairie Star District of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Retrieved April 17, 2011.
- ^ Hannan, Caryn (1 January 1998). Michigan Biographical Dictionary. State History Publications. ISBN 978-1-878592-95-8. Retrieved 25 April 2024.
External links
Works related to Woman of the Century/Mary Lydia Leggett at Wikisource
