Saturday, August 11, 2007

Hiram Hadley

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In 1888, about 7 years after the railroads arrived, Hiram Hadley was the founder and first president of Las Cruces College, which became the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, and later New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico USA. In Las Cruces there is Hadley Hall and a Hadley Street.
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His obituatry states:
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The funeral of Honorable Hiram Hadley, founder of the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, was held at Hadley Hall, Thursday afternoon, at two o'clock, the Rev. Ira H. McClymonds presiding. The funeral opened with a hymn, "Nearer My God to Thee," by a community quartette. Reverend McClymonds pronounced the scriptures, followed by a short talk by Mr. H. A. Sutherland on the life of Hiram Hadley. Prayer by Rev. HcClymonds, followed by the Hymn, "Jesus Lover of My Soul," concluded the services at Hadley Hall. The funeral procession to the grave was a mile in length. The body of President Hadley was placed to rest in the Masonic Cemetery at Las Cruces.
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Hiram Hadley was born March 17, 1833, in Clinton County, Ohio, and died December 3, 1922, in Kansas City, Mo., at the Christian Church Hospital where he underwent an operation for cancer. He came to New Mexico in 1887. He was the father of education in the state. In the fall of 1888 he opened the Las Cruces College in the old building at the northwest corner of Amador and South Alameda Streets. This later became a State institution under the name of the Agricultural College of New Mexico, and later, the New Mexico College of Agricultural and Mechanic Arts. The Administration Building carries his name to this day. Besides being the founder and first president of the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Hiram Hadley was one time Acting President of the University of New Mexico, at Albuquerque.
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Mr. Hadley also started the first public school in this part of the state. There were three principal items Mr. Hadley wished to see accomplished during his life, namely: National Prohibition, Woman Suffrage, and International Peace. During his life he had seen two of these accomplished, and wonderful progress toward the third. Mr. Hadley is survived by his widow and two daughters, Miss Anna Hadley of Mesilla Park, and Mrs. Allen of Chicago. The death of Hiram Hadley is a great blow to the College and
to the people of the Mesilla Valley.
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Yesterday at the city museum in Silver City, New Mexico I saw this large mining map of suthern New Mexico painted on the wall. Just north of Deming a small mining community named Hadley is shown.
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On the eastern slopes of the Cooke's range there is a geographic feature called Hadley Draw.
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My father was born in 1914, Paris, Texas. This is only 10 miles south of Oklahoma. Paris is almost 700 miles to the east of Las Cruces, New Mexico. It is just pure supposition, but perhaps my father was named Benjamin Hadley Garland in honor of someone related to Hiram Hadley.
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On the other hand when you look in any decent world atlas for places named Hadley, you see that there are at least 20 places called that. And if you Google the phrase BIOGRAPHY HADLEY you get page after page of people named Hadley. The same when you look up HADLEY PARIS TEXAS, so probably there is no connection between my father and Hiram Hadley.

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