Mary R. Denman

[2] Circa 1848, she married Isaac Marsh Denman (1821-1866),[3] a carriage manufacturer, who had an extensive business in New Orleans.

[3] On 1873, Denman, having received a wonderful uplift in her spiritual life at the Methodist National Camp Meeting at Sea Cliff, New York, felt herself prepared special religious work.

There they told their story, and a clergyman, affectionately called "Father Osborne," said: "It is high time such work was begun in Newark, and I appoint Mrs. Denman leader.

Mary G. Hill, as long as she lived, and Denman, till poor health ended her ability to participate, stood by those meetings, commenced in a store-building with seats of boards, laid on empty boxes.

A circular letter was sent to every town where a YMCA was established, calling upon Christian women interested in the cause of temperance to meet in the Clinton Street Methodist Episcopal church, Newark, to organize a State Union, November 11, 1874.

John Nobles, with Denman, now made the tour of the state, especially the southern part, and Unions were established, or the nucleus of them, at various places along the coast.

Atlantic City, New Jersey, at that time consisting of only a few small houses and tents, was visited in 1877, and meetings were held there and in all the towns in that part of the state.

With Mrs. Brundage, Denman visited Oxford Furnace, Belvidere, and towns away back in the country and among the mountains.

Through all these years, Denman was in very frail health, many times returning from her trips to spend days or often weeks in her bed.

It then became necessary for her to resign her state position, and in the fall of 1881, Sarah Jane Corson Downs was elected to fill her place.