Caroline A. Soule (née, White; September 3, 1824 – December 6, 1903), was an American novelist, poet, religious writer, editor, and ordained Universalist minister, who was in 1880 the first woman to be ordained as a minister in the United Kingdom; first president and one of the founders of the Woman's Centenary Aid Association, the earliest national organization of American church women; and the first Universalist Church of America missionary when sent to Scotland in 1878.

[4] When she turned twelve, Soule began to attend the Albany Female Academy, graduating in 1841 with a gold medal for her essay, "The Goodness of God Not Fully Demonstrated Without the Act of Revelation."

[6] Until her husband's death, Soule's role was that of the dutiful minister's wife, although she had sometimes helped him with his writing and editing projects.

[7] After his death, she taught school briefly, however Soule's chief income was from writing and work as a religious editor.

A collection of these tales, Home Life; or A Peep Across the Threshold, was issued by the Boston Universalist publisher Abel Tompkins in 1855.

During these years she wrote two novels, Little Alice; or The Pet of the Settlement (1860), based on her life on the prairies, and Wine or Water: a Tale of New England (1862), a temperance story, both published by Tompkins.

After her older children had become adults, Soule moved to Albany, New York in 1863 to get medical treatment for her failing eyesight.

[10] Elected president of the WCAA, Soule traveled across the United States urging Universalist women to join and to gather money for the John Murray Fund, named after John Murray, who had begun preaching Universalism in America in 1770, was created to help needy ministers and their families.

[14] As president of the WCA, which was at that time responsible for raising money for missionary work in Scotland, Soule was interested in meeting the Universalists there.

Arriving in 1878, Soule preached in Dunfermline, Larbert, Braidwood, Lochee, Dundee, and Glasgow, and in England and Ulster as well.

During 1882–86, Soule returned to the United States, helping with the WCA and preaching in Hightstown, New Jersey (1882–83), and on tour in New England and throughout the West.