Hadley Society Photo Gallery

Simon Hadley was born in Chatham County, North Carolina. He was the son of Jacob Hadley (1786-1873) and Ruth Hadley (1791-1868). On 27 November 1842, he married Eunice Hobson (16 September 1822 - 12 December 1901), who was the daughter of William Hobson (1797-1890) and Ruth Newlin (1802-1866). Simon North Carolina with many of his relatives and other Friends and settled in Marshall, Parke County, Indiana. After their marriage in Indiana, Simon and Eunice had ten children: Elizabeth (25 September 1843 - 05 April 1846), Ira Simon (30 August 1845 - 18 April 1920), William (26 October 1847 - 17 February 1932), Narcissa (22 April 1850 - 28 December 1937), Elwood (03 December 1852 - 03 October 1943), Rhoda (15 October 1855 - 28 April 1889), Ruth (02 May 1858 - 18 March 1941), Samuel (24 April 1861 - 12 March 1940), Albert (12 April 1865 - 12 January 1905), and Mahlon (10 October 1867 - 09 November 1949). They are buried in Poplar Grove Cemetery in Marshall, Parke County, Indiana.

The following is an account of the Friends journey from North Carolina to the West:

Several members of the family journeyed to the free Northwest Territory on a tour of inspection where they were impressed by the great natural resources of the new country beyond the Ohio. Returning to North Carolina, they, with hundreds of other Friends equally anxious to leave the South, sold their lands and all other possessions which could not be hauled over the rough roads to the new country.

All of the Quaker Hadleys did not leave North Carolina at the same time, but those who delayed were encouraged to join their relatives in Ohio and Indiana by the glowing reports sent them.

Four routes of travel were used by the Friends in reaching Ohio and Indiana. One was over the Kanawha road to the Falls of the Kanawha and down that river to the Ohio, which was crossed at Gallipolis. Another route was known as the Kentucky Road, which crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains at Wards Gap, across New River near Wyeth Court House, Virginia, thence by way of Abingdon, thence through the Cumberland Gap and through Kentucky to Cincinnati. A third route which was a very rough one, was by way of Poplar Camp and Flour Gap, by way of Brownville and Lexington, Kentucky, and across the Ohio at Cincinnati, Laurenceburg or Madison. The most favored route of all was by the Magadee Road over the Virginia turnpike to the Ohio at the mouth of the Kanawha.

Addison Coffin has said that the Friends who left North Carolina carried most of the money in circulation out of the state with them and that as late as 1840, notes on the Bank of Cape Fear or on the State Bank of North Carolina were considered as good as gold even in Cincinnati.

Some Friends brought slaves with them on the long overland journey and then freed them when they reached free territory.

In settling in the new country, the Hadleys seem to have been good judges of land, which was purchased in the rich bottoms and always where springs abounded. They were surrounded by forests and unsettled conditions, but they formed communities with other Friends and soon erected meeting houses and school buildings.

The Hadleys as a family seem to have had a high sense of honor, for an old saying became current in certain sections in which they lived: that the name Hadley was worth $150.00 to its possessor. Their industry was also shown by the remark sometimes heard, that if a fence was discovered bearing one rail more than was necessary, it meant the fence enclosed Hadley land.

Excerpt from a letter written by Alvis Milton Hadley to Rhoda Marshall Banta on April 14, 1936:

"I have heard my father tell many times about your grandfather Simon visiting his father Jacob after he had been away for 40 years. He had bought his ticket to Greensboro, N.C. and made his way on to his father's a distance of 40 miles, and got to the home of a Job Stuart, who he had known, and Stuart walked down with him to his boy days home to see father and mother, but Simon stopped at the Spring while Stuart went up to the house and went in, but very soon Simon came to the door and was invited in, and Stuart was talking to Jacob. The stranger not having anything to say - so Stuart asked Jacob how long it had been since he had seen his son Simon. And he told him it had been about 40 years. Then he asked Jacob if he would know him if he was to see him. Jacob told him, yes, he would know him. So at that point Stuart told him that the stranger was his son, Simon. So then there was rejoicing and tears of great joy shed by all in the home. And I never heard my father tell about it and hide his tears."