Around the same time, she met a young Presbyterian minister, Edward Payson Terhune, with whom she felt a mutual attraction. Hawes did not at first want to marry a clergyman due to the "duties and liabilities" pressed upon a minister's wife. After Terhune moved to Charlotte Court House, Virginia to assume leadership of a small church, he continued to court her. They were married on September 2, 1856. After their marriage, Mary Terhune continued writing fiction, publishing a novel a year and monthly episodes of serial works.