By Raymond B. Howard, Wilmington Ohio News Journal Tuesday, February 18,1969.

Editor's note: Raymond B. Howard author of this article, is former city editor of the News Journal; former London publisher and presently is executive assistant of Secretary of State Ted W. Brown.  Mr. Howard's wife is also a former Clinton Countian, a daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Orlando Bevan, of the Springfield church neighborhood.  The Howards still reside in London.  Mr. Howard admits that this article grew out of his "news noseyness," which he says he still retains from N.J. staffer days, which cropped up when the Hadley family story was related at his wife's family reunion a few months ago.

One of the most recent, significantly interesting contributions to Clinton County's historical background is the Hadley family data garnered by two of the many present day descendants of Simon Hadley .

It reveals that pioneer Hadley came from England in 1712.  His was an interesting chapter of American history "a fruitful life in a new land" depicted by research records provided by Mrs. Mary Webb, of Adams Township, and Mrs. Mary McKecknie Dundey, of Pelham Manor, N.Y.

A saddening note is injected into the story because of his untimely death at the hands of a robbery-motivated murderer.

Of general historical interest is Simon Hadley's acquaintance with William Penn, who had been his contemporary in England, and who preceded him to America.  His interest and admiration for the devout Quaker's colonization efforts caused Simon Hadley to do what he could to extend the shadow of the great imprint Penn had made on this new land by the time Hadley arrived in America.

Of more local interest, perhaps, is Simon Hadley's eventual tie, through his great-grandson, to Clinton County.

William and Sara Clark Hadley, reared in North Carolina, migrated to Clinton County in 1810. They laid out the plat for Clarksville and sold lots from the bottom lands which they had acquired, naming the settlement after Mrs. Hadley.

Their son John Hadley, established a flourishing pork packing plant in Clarksville, the only one in this part of the country at that early date.  He also built his residence there.  The family residing in the house, which later came to be known as "The Linton Mansion."

John Hadley furnished a market for hog raisers, purchasing thousands of hogs annually.  The meat products were hauled to Cincinnati in horse drawn wagons"a round trip consuming a week!

Another son of these founders of Clarksville was Joshua (III).  He built the farm home, on the George Rd., which is considered by the Clinton County Hadleys and Bevans as their original ancestral home.  It is now owned by Joan Branstraty.

In addition to Mr. and Mrs. Webb there are countless numbers in Clinton County and elsewhere, who are direct descendants of these early day Hadleys who applied their enterprise in Ohio.

The linking years, leading up to Clinton County's emergence into the Simon Hadley story, form an interesting backdrop to the continuing impact which his settlement in this country provided.

History reveals that in 1681 to repay a debt to the family, King Charles II granted a vast colonial American acreage to William Penn.  Penn came to America the following year.

Soon afterward, he acquired even more holdings"an area referred to then as the three lower counties, known today as Delaware.

Not only did he settle Philadelphia but he bent his efforts in the fruition of his dream of a colony providing a haven for religious and political freedom.

By the time Simon Hadley came to America, William Penn had made a second trip to this country and had returned to Britain.  But it is significant, and apparently witness to Simon's interest in Penn's activities, that his new American home was built in 1717 on land near the Delaware - Pennsylvania border, where Penn's great influence continued to be exerted.

The Simon Hadley house still stands on a 300-acre farm, part of the original 1,500-acre tract, near Hockessin, Del., near Wilmington.  The Delaware - Pennsylvania state line runs just back of the buildings, restored and treasured by the present owners.  Simon's initials are still on the name-plate in one of the gables of the two-story house.  Nearby is the typical English-type stone barn in which Simon Hadley was murdered.

He is reported to have had a habit of carrying large sums of cash.  On that fatal day,  his family had gone away, leaving only him and his farm hand there.  When the family returned, finding his body, both the money and the hired man were missing, the assumption being that the farm hand had murdered him.

But Simon Hadley had a large family and his memory lived on!  A son, Joshua (I), located in North Carolina, 12 miles south of Graham, in the vicinity of High Point, N.C. (it is interesting to note that not only the Hadleys but many other families in Clinton County, including the Harveys and Hales, trace their ancestry to High Point).

His son Joshua (II), married Ruth Lindley, whose father operated one of the largest flour mills in the East in a locale which was the scene of one of the major Revolutionary War battles.

Joshua (II) and his wife gave the land for the Spring (Friends) Church and burying ground.  They later were buried there.  There is a unique story about their stone marker, according to Mrs. Dundey, who has visited their graves.

Their headstone marker is comprised of three stones"the first taken from the old Lindley Mill; the second from the early North Carolina homestead of Joshua's boyhood and the third from the couple"the hearthstone of the Joshua (II) homestead.

It was their son, William, who migrated, with his wife, to Clinton County in 1810, founding the village of Clarksville.

Mrs. Dundey is a great-grand-daughter of John Hadley, the meat packer, whose father and mother, William and Sarah Clark Hadley, founded  Clarksville. Her aunt married a Linton and her mother married Dr. John McKenzie, who once practiced medicine in Wilmington.

Mrs. Dundey's travels in quest of family history which led her to Delaware and North Carolina also brought her to Clinton County last summer.  She was a houseguest of  Mrs. Ralph Webb, another compiler of historical data, the two spending much time in visits to Clarksville, Wilmington and other Hadley family landmarks.

Mrs. Webb is the daughter of the late Morris Hadley.  He was a well-known farmer in the Springfield church neighborhood in Adams Township for many years.  His father was Archibald Hadley, a son of Joshua (III), making him a grandson of the initial settlers, William and Sarah.  Archibald's sister, Jane Hadley, married Lewis Bevan, accounting for the Bevan tie into the Hadley lineage.

Morris Hadley had a brother Nat, who had a daughter, Vivian Hadley McIntire and a son, Paul, deceased, and three sisters, Mrs. Clara Whitacre, who had two sons Roy and Lennie, both deceased.  Mrs. Anna Penquite and Mrs. Ida Whitacre and the following sons and daughters of Morris Hadley are Mrs. Taylor (Veda) Moore (deceased); Mrs. Ralph (Mary) Webb;  William, Donald and Raymond Hadley and Mrs.  Wendell (Olive) Crites and Mrs. Clarence (Doris)Harvey.

His aunt, Jane Hadley Bevan, and Lewis Bevan had three sons, the late Frank Bevan of Wilmington, and Emmitt and Orlando, of Adams Township.

Emmett Bevan's family consisted of Mrs. Bessie Hagemeyer and Mrs. Anna Weller, both deceased, and Mrs. Lulu Probasco and Lewis Bevan.  Lewis Bevan has compiled a Bevan genealogy which shares interest at the annual Hadley-Bevan reunion, which includes a review of newly added Hadley history.

Hugh Bevan, Ralph Bevan and Mrs. Nina Howard are the surviving members of the Orlando Bevan's family.  Deceased are sons, Horace and Orville Bevan and daughters, Mrs. Jessie Winfield, Mrs., Louise Carvey and Mrs. Geneva Finlayson.

An interesting side-note with regard to the Orlando Bevan family is the fact that his wife, Ella Hadley Bevan, traced her ancestry to another branch of the Hadley family.  She was the daughter of Harlan H. And Susanna Kimbrough Hadley.

Mrs. Jennie Graham, Mrs. Florence Daugherty, Mrs. Lucille Webb, Mrs. Myra Brandenburg and Mrs. Nida Gerhardt are daughters of the late Frank Bevan.  Harrison, deceased, Jonathan and Carleton are the sons.

Mrs. Ralph Webb appeared on the program of the 1968 Hadley-Bevan reunion held last summer at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Maynard Hagemeyer on the Lebanon-Wilmington Pike.  She read a letter and showed pictures taken by Mrs. Dundey at the Simon Hadley farm and added her own comments about her visit with her New York state cousin to places of interest in Clinton County"all to the delight of those in attendance.

Obviously, there are hundreds of descendants of the Hadley family who could not be named in this recital.

Let us hope that there may be more complete genealogical record placed in permanent Clinton County archives during 1969.  The Hadley story is so far-reaching, connecting so many other familiar Clinton County family names, as to deserve preservation as a historical document!

Caption (house):

Copy and text of article provided to the Hadley Society by Tim Hadley.