Pike Township Family Stories
IVEN D. AND VESTA BROWN HADLEY
Nichols, Iowa Centennial Book 1884-1984, pages 269-270
By Amelia Hadley MillsVesta Brown Hadley was the daughter of Thomas “Tobe” Madison Brown, a Civil War veteran and violinist, and Sophia Ferry Brown. Vesta was raised and educated at Strawberry Hill school near Letts, Iowa.
Thomas Brown and Sophia Brown also had four sons and two other daughters. Edwin Brown, the eldest, passed away and is buried at Keota, Iowa. Horace Brown is buried at Letts, Iowa. Hugh Brown is buried at Des Moines, Iowa. Lucius Brown, the youngest child, is also buried at Letts. Julia Brown married Cella Blake, and they are buried in the Letts cemetery. Myra Brown passed away at an early age, leaving a daughter, Anna, and Vesta Brown helped to raise her.
Tobe Brown and Sophia Brown are buried in the Oakgrove cemetery at Cranston. Vesta passed away in July 1954 and is buried at Letts.
Iven D. Hadley came to Letts with his mother when he was a baby. His father died when he was nine months old and is buried at Winterset, Iowa. Iven’s mother, Amelia Emily Hadley, made her way with four children to raise and bought a home at Letts. There were two boys and two girls in the family.
Everett Hadley was a dentist; he practiced at Pocatello, Idaho. He did not marry. When he died, he was returned to Letts for burial.
Charlotte “Lottie” Hadley died at the early age of thirty-six and is buried in the family lot at Letts.
Frances C. Hadley was a principal in the Muscatine schools for many years. She built a home at 609 E. Eleventh street in Muscatine where she lived until she passed away in 1932. She made a home for her mother, and they are both buried at Letts.
Iven Hadley and Vesta Brown were married at her home near Letts in 1900. To this union four children were born, all in the home, a log house which sat in Muscatine county; the barn was over the line in Louisa county. Iven passed away in 1941 and is buried in the family lot at Letts, Iowa.
Edward Brown Hadley, the oldest child of Iven and Vesta, was born in 1902. He graduated from Letts High school and married Eva Ruth Billick in 1926. They moved to Mediapolis, Iowa, where he worked for the Central Engineering company. In 1929 they moved to Davenport where he worked for the Victor Animangraph company, which manufactured movie cameras and projectors. He has a movie camera and projector in his home. The Victor company has since sold out to the Bendix Corporation. In 1934 he moved to his parents’ farm to resume farming there while his father was recovering from a serious illness. Then he moved to Atalissa, Iowa, where he still lives. Edward and his wife joined the Grange, and he was Master of Penn Avenue Grange for many years, Master of Iowa State Grange from 1969- 1970, and helped to organize Pike Grange. They have one son, Edward Rodney Hadley, who resides with his wife and family in Buffalo, Iowa.
James Ward Hadley, son of Iven and Vesta, was born in 1906. Ward was his grandmother’s maiden name. He graduated from Letts High school in 1925 and married Leila Bernice Nash in 1938. They have one son, James Edwin, who resides with his wife in Tucson, Arizona.
Iven Hadley and Vesta Hadley bought the Watkins farm south of Nichols in 1920, which was homesteaded by Benjamin Olds. Jim bought the farm from his mother. The boys traveled by motorcycle to Letts to finish high school there, staying with their grandmother in Letts when the roads were impassable. Fifty-five years ago planes were seldom seen in the sky. When Jim came home from Marshall Flying school in Marshall, Missouri, he landed in the field south of our home.
Thomas Madison Hadley, son of Iven and Vesta, was born in 1915. He graduated from Nichols High school in 1932, married Mary Alice Gregory in 1938 and started farming with Jim on their parents’ farm. Later he bought a farm near Tipton, Iowa, which he sold to buy the Stepanek farm near West Branch, Iowa, where they live. Their son, Gaylord Gregory Hadley, serves in the United States Navy. He lives at Jacksonville, Florida, with his wife and two daughters.
Amelia Ferry Hadley was born in 1918, the daughter of Iven Hadley and Vesta Hadley. She attended Lacy school, which is now Pike Grange, and the Nichols school. She worked at the Union Pacific depot in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Baker’s hospital in Muscatine, Kirchner’s General store and Rice Café, both in Nichols. She married Burton A. Mills, and they have two children: Gary L. Mills and Vesta A. Mills.
Gary Mills lives with his wife, Connie Madsen Mills, and their three children on the Joshua A. Mills farm which his father, Burton Mills, bought in 1941.
Vesta A. Mills is married to Clayton Stammer and lives in Muscatine.
Burton Mills died suddenly in 1979 in the home where he was born and raised.
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Page created December 12, 2010 by Lynn McCleary