The Terhunes moved to Newark, New Jersey in February 1859, after the Reverend accepted a pastorate position there to be closer to his aging father. A few years after their move, the Civil War (1861–1865) cut Mary off from her family, including her brothers who fought for the Confederacy (she supported the Union). Though she frequently wrote about the South in her novels both before and after the war, and expressed her great love of her home state, she lived in the North with her husband for most of her life.