Mary visited her uncle in Columbia, Missouri, in the summer of 1840. She wrote a letter to her friend, Merce Levering, and included the following:
"If you conclude to settle in Missouri, I will do so too, [there] is one being here, who cannot brook the mention of my return, an agreeable lawyer & grandson of Patrick Henry—what an honor! Shall never survive it—I wish you could see him, the most perfect original I had ever met, my beaux have always been hard bargains at any rate, Uncle and others think, he surpasses his noble ancestor in talents, yet Merce I love him not, & my hand will never be given when my heart is not—"