Hadley, Illinois

Moses Laws, a North Carolinian, came from that state in 1818. He was a widower with seven children, William, John, James, Lewis, Sarah, Elizabeth and Annie. All married in the county, and reared families. William married a sister of Benjamin Sumner, and settled on the site of Hadley ; John on the state road north of that village and kept a stage stand, as early as 1838; James also on the state road in what is now Richland county ; Lewis married Silva Basdin, and settled two and a half miles northeast of Sumner, where he reared a family The Laws now in the county, are descendants of William and Lewis. William Laws of Sumner is a son of Lewis. William Blanchard, a Kentuckian, in 1818 settled on section 13, where he resided for about ten or twelve years. Joseph Williams, came from Ohio, in 1819, and settled in the same section, just south of Benjamin Surauer, where he lived until his death, about twenty-five years ago. None of his family lived in the

Passage source: Combined History of Edwards, Lawrence and Wabash Counties, Illinois. With Illustrations ... and Biographical Sketches of Some of Their Prominent Men and Pioneers, published 1883.

This village was laid out on the southwest corner of section 6, township 3, range 13, by William and Lindsay Laws, under the name of Fertile City. It. was surveyed and platted Sept. 16, 1853, by Peter Smith, county surveyor ; and the plat was recorded October 4th, 1853. On the site of the town stood a horse-mill, built by William Laws as early as 1835. At one time a considerable amount of business was done at this point. Among the early business men were William E. Robinson, Logan and Dailey, Yocum and Miller, James French, D. L. Wilson, 8. R. Robinson and T. Green. A steam saw and flour-mill, built by Lindsay Laws, was in operation here some years ago. The town has now gone out of existence. Black Jack Post-office, which was located at a point two miles northwest of Sumner, was moved to Hadley about 1856. William E. Robinson was the first post- master.

Passage source: Combined History of Edwards, Lawrence and Wabash Counties, Illinois. With Illustrations ... and Biographical Sketches of Some of Their Prominent Men and Pioneers, published 1883.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Christy Township - it names this place 1 more 1 time.