HADLEY, Ira - Fountain County INGenWeb Project

Ira HADLEY -- the settlers of Montgomery County of the year 1882 number among its band the substantial farmer and splendid citizen of Bolton, Ira Hadley, of this brief review. He came in response to the general movement of the time and place toward Kansas and emigrated from Parke County, Indiana. He was born in the latter county and state August 30, 1845, where his father Simon Hadley settled in 1834 and where he maintained his residence till his death in 1896. Simon Hadley was born in Chatham County NC in 1810 and was consequently 24 when he took up his residence in the wooded country of western indiana. There he aided by physical effort the clearing up of the county in which he lived and was one of its moderatly successful farmers. In his northward and westward journey he came through Ohio where he sojourned temporarily working as a farm hand and doing other manual labor as the necessities of the occasion required. He was a son of Jacob Hadley who died in NC and was one of the following children, Jonathan who went into Iowa; William remained in the Old North State; THomas died in the state of his birth - NC; . . . a daughter who died in Hendricks Co Indiana and was the wife of Joseph Ronsley; Eleanor wife of Owen Lindley died at Prairie Center KS; Susan who married . . Harris of NC and Eunice who became the wife of . . . Marshall of the old Carolina home. Simon Hadley married Eunice Hobson who survived until 1902 and died in Parke County, Indiana at the age of 79. Their children were Eliza deceased; Ira; William of Bloomingdale, Indiana; Narcissa of Marshall, Indiana; Elwood of the same county; Rhoda who died at Rockville, wife of MW Marshall; Samuel and Ruth of Marshall and ALbert and Mahlon of the same county and state. Ira Hadley, our subject passed his life on his father's farm in childhood and youth and received a country school training. He brought his limited accumulation sof 15 years of independent effort with him to Montgomery County KS and purchased land in Sec 19, Twp 33 Rg 15 where he owns 140 acres. For some years he was engaged in the nursery business, having several acres of his farm devoted to the production of a large variety of horticultural plants with the promotion of which industry he was occupied until 1896. As a farmer, grain raising claims his attention and he goes about his daily task in a modest, unassuming way. In the month of Jan 1872, Mr. Hadley married in Fountain County, Indiana his wife being Ruth H. TOWELL, a daughter of Isaac H. Towell and sister of Ira N. Towell mentioned on another page of this volume. The issue of this marriage is as follows: Oliver O born 1875; Clara E born 1877; Eunice A born 1879; John W born in 1883; and Floyd S born in KS in 1889. Without fuss or show Mr. Hadley has gone about the affairs of life and has merited and won an enduring position in the estimation of his fellow citizens. He has been true to his family, true to his neighbors and true to his political party. He has been a Republican all his life and the isms and side-issues of designing politicians have not attracted him or carried him away. He is a Mason.