HADLEY, JOSHUA (ca. 1786–1845). Joshua Hadley, pioneer settler and public official, son of Benjamin and Elizabeth (King) Hadley, was born in North Carolina about 1786. In 1830 he moved with his wife and four children from Tennessee to Texas and settled in what is now San Augustine County. On May 7, 1831, he received title to a league of land near the source of Rocky Creek, four miles northeast of the site of Anderson in what is now Grimes County. There he constructed a two-story house and a log fort for the protection of his family and the surrounding community, which was known as Hadley's Prairie.
Hadley represented the District of Viesca in the Convention of 1832 and in 1835 became the first alcalde elected in Washington Municipality. He served in the Texas army from June 30 to September 30, 1836, and received for his services a bounty grant of 320 acres in Grimes County. He was a Mason and a charter member of Orphan's Friend Lodge No. 17, organized at the home of Henry Fanthorp in 1842.
Hadley and his first wife, Obedience (Grantham), had five children. Obedience died in 1839, and Hadley married Joyce V. McGuffin. They had three children. Hadley died during the summer of 1845 and was buried at his home in Hadley's Prairie.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: E. L. Blair, Early History of Grimes County (Austin, 1930). Texas House of Representatives, Biographical Directory of the Texan Conventions and Congresses, 1832–1845 (Austin: Book Exchange, 1941).
