serious business of war was to come, and the early spring morning that witnessed the firing on Sumter furnished the occasion. One after another of the flower of the town were enrolled in the different Massachusetts regiments, so that there was hardly a family but had a representative on distant battle fields. From Virginia to Louisiana they had marched and fought, and many found a grave under a southern sun. Of course the most prominent of the Hadley soldiers was Gen. Joseph Hooker, born on West street and a graduate of Hopkins Academy. His birthplace is still standing, in good state of preservation, near the upper end of the street, under the shelter of one of the magnificent elms, that is known to be over a hundred years old, and goes so far in making this one of the finest avenues in the world. It is unnecessary here to go into detail on the life of General Hooker, as the gathering of his comrades under the shadow of the elm of his birthplace will be a far better memory than words can express. The day and the occasion is one more pearl in the necklace of fame for the old town in the bend of the river.
The veterans of the war have grown gray, and as year after year they march to the cemetery in the meadow, to decorate the graves of those gone before, their ranks grow thinner, and soon all will be gathered to the last resting place.
This meadow cemetery is nearly filled up, and it is an eloquent memorial of the past. First, at the western end, are the brown stones of the early settlers, moss grown and with inscriptions scarcely legible, then the eastern portion is being thickly filled with the marble stones of more modern days, so that the inhabitants of the burial ground outnumber the living in the elm embowered street.
Within a stone's throw of the cemetery the shriek of a the locomotive is heard every day, and the wide street is cut in twain by a monster that would frighten the early settlers back to their graves.
With the rapidity of action inherent to all modern thought, and the ability to annihilate time and space with new inventions, it is an interesting question to note what shall become of "Old Hadley" in the next hundred years.
