LYNDEBOROUGH – Paul Hadley, a magazine editor from Lincoln, Neb., was in Nashua last week for a convention of The Sons of Civil War Veterans. He took time out to look up some ancestors in Lyndeborough.

Levi Hadley was one of the town’s earliest settlers, moving there from Ipswich, Mass. The Donovan History of 1905 says “he probably bought wild land” on which he established a farm.

“There were some (family members) from Salem who had some connection with the witch trials,” Hadley said.

Most of Lyndeborough’s first grantees were from the Salem area, thus its original name Salem-Canada. Several families in town are descendants of the “witches.”

With the help of Cemetery Trustee Ginny Chrisenton, Hadley visited a family plot in the Center Cemetery on Sunday, Aug. 6. Of particular interest was the lichen covered slate marker for Joshua Hadley who he described as a “Patriot,” one of those militiamen with Ethan Allen who captured Fort Ticonderoga in 1777. He later served in other battles.

Joshua Hadley died in 1808 at the age of 70.

A younger Joshua Hadley moved to New York state, and Paul is descended from him. His ancestor in the Civil War enlisted from New York. “Samuel and some of his brothers.”

Hadley had reached out to Chrisenton because she had assisted a Hadley Family reunion in 2010, providing maps of various cemeteries for them.

Prior to the cemetery, Hadley visited the house on Mountain Road built by Joshua Hadley and now owned by Peter van Ham, who was haying at the time.

“In England, my family were farmers,” Hadley said. “The name Hadley means field of heather.”

Family members moved west to Iowa, he said, “and raised wheat in North Dakota and Oregon.” His branch of the family settled in Nebraska.

Hadley also met with Walter Holland, captain of the Lafayette Artillery Company, to see the company’s 1844 brass cannon, the type of field piece his ancestor would have seen during the Civil War.

He was impressed, he said, “by the fact it is all original, in much better condition than others I’ve seen.”

The cannon has always been owned by the company, was never in battle, and is well cared for.

It was an informative visit, Hadley said, and hoped he could come back, “after I’ve retired.”