Maria E. Tallman (b. Tallman) (1842-1920) was born in Chestnut Ridge, New York, and died in Jamestown, New York. She was a teacher and an artist. She graduated from Geneva Wesleyan Seminary in Lima, New York, and in 1867 married Henry M. Tallman in Rochester, New York. He was a Civil War veteran, having served in Company M of the 22nd New York Cavalry, and after the war he became a school principal. Around 1870 the couple moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where Maria spent three years in art school and Henry earned his law degree from Washington University. They divorced in 1882, and Maria subsequently moved to Pennsylvania, first to Corry, and by 1889 to Meadville, where she remained. She spent the last weeks of her life being cared for by her sister Ruth T. Fenner (b. Tallman) in Jamestown. In the mid-1880s Maria and Ruth both studied Christian Science with Sarah J. Clark, one of Mary Baker Eddy's students, and then went on to take the Normal class from Eddy. Maria took class in October 1887 and Ruth in May 1889. Maria joined The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 1, 1898, and was a practitioner and teacher listed in The Christian Science Journal from 1899 to 1915. She was also a member of the Christian Scientist Association, the National Christian Scientist Association, and the General Association of Teachers. In 1906 she helped establish First Church of Christ, Scientist, Meadville, Pennsylvania.

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