Indiana Historical Society - Manuscripts & Archives
User Information
Biographical Sketches
Scope and Content Note
Cataloguing Information
Processed by
Charles Latham
27 March 1996
VOLUME OF COLLECTION: 10 items
COLLECTION DATES: 1840-1846
PROVENANCE: Thomas Krasean, Indiana Historical Society, from dealer at Indianapolis Antique Mall, 12 March 1996
RESTRICTIONS: None
REPRODUCTION RIGHTS: Permission to reproduce or publish material in this collection must be obtained in writing from the Indiana Historical Society
ALTERNATE FORMATS: None
OTHER FINDING AIDS: None
RELATED HOLDINGS: BV 217, Evan Hadley Commonplace Book; BV 548, West Union Monthly Meeting Minutes
ACCESSION NUMBER: 96.0315
Evan Hadley (1816-1894) was born in Chatham County, North Carolina, the son of James and Mary Hadley. With his family he moved to Morgan County, Indiana, in 1820. James Hadley, one of the first Quakers to settle in central Indiana, helped set up a school at Sulphur Springs, and taight there for several terms beginning in 1824.
Evan Hadley married Mary Ann Ballard (b. 1826), daughter of a pioneer family. Farming near Monrovia, he also was involved with the South Western railroad Company (1853), with work as a guardian and executor (1857), and as an agent for Home Insurance Company (1885-1895). He became an expert on local genealogy and land transfers, and was quoted at length (3 1/2 pages) in Blanchard's 1884 county history. He served on the board of the local academy in 1861-1862.
Alida Clawson lived in Richmond, and taught school. She was apparently Hadley's sister-in-law. Hadley's brother, Jonathan D. Hadley, lived in Clinton County, Ohio.
Sources: Materials in collections
Blanchard, Counties of Morgan, Monroe & Brown (1884), 273-276
Cline and Mahaffey, People's Guide to Morgan County (1874), 316, 325
Almira H. Hadley, Brief History of Mooresville and Vicinity (1918), 24
Clara S. Richardson, History of Mooresville 1824-1974 (1974), 28
This collection contains ten items, letters written to Evan Hadley of Monrovia, Morgan County, Indiana, between 1840 and 1846. It is arranged chronologically.
The letters are written by Alida Clawson (later Clark) in Richmond, Indiana; by Jonathan D. Hadley in Clarksville, Clinton County, Ohio; and by Naomi B. Clawson in Whitewater, Indiana.
The letters, written with an intermittent use of "thee," refer mainly to family matters and general health. Several, particularly those of Alida Clawson, are in a rather high-flown style. ("Nor were those [hours] passed with you the least regretted But often reflected upon with the most sublime pleasure.")
Unusual events referred to:
- Henry Harney has gone west of the Mississippi "to take charge of the Indians under Friends' care" (3-22-1840)
- Naomi Clawson is very proud of the quilt she made in just two weeks (4-24-1841)
- Jonathan Hadley has done some sugaring, and also reports three deaths from consumption in one twelve-hour period (4-12-1843)
- James Hadley has died ("There has a mighty man fallen in Israel") (3-17-1844)
- Alida Clawson made $46 teaching last term, and is now running a penmanship school; Aunt Jemima Cuppy has died ("She moulders in the silent clay") (4-2-1844)
- Evan Hadley's wife has died and he has almost immediately remarried (7-6-1845, 8-16-1845)
MAIN ENTRY: Hadley, Evan, 1816-1894
SUBJECT ENTRIES: Hadley, Evan, 1816-1894
Quakers--Midwest
Indians of North America--Missions
Remarriage--Indiana--Morgan County
Monrovia (Ind.)--History--Sources
ADDED ENTRIES: Clark, Alida Clawson
Hadley, Jonathan D.
Clawson, Naomi B.
END