Biography of Harry Clay Hadden

HARRY CLAY HADDEN has made for himself excellent rep-
utation and worthy success in connection with mercantile
enterprise in the City of Princeton, Mercer County, where
he is head of the firm of H. C. Hadden & Company, one
of the representative establishments of the city.

Of Scotch and Irish ancestry, Mr. Hadden was born at
Oakdale, Pennsylvania, in January, 1878, and is a son of
Alexander A. and Agnes K. (Jackson) Hadden, the former
of whom was born in Ireland and the latter in Pennsyl-
vania. The Jackson family came from Scotland and settled
at South Fayette, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in an
early day. Alexander A. Hadden was reared in his native
land and came to the United States about 1875. He be-
came a mine superintendent in the coal fields of Pennsyl-
vania, and was an expert mine man. He died in 1910. His
wife died in 1906.

After attending the public schools of his native town and
also Oakdale Academy at the same place, Harry C. Had-
den found employment, and in the meanwhile attended night
school in Duff's Business College, Pittsburgh, Pennsyl-
vania, where he gave special attention to the study of
bookkeeping and business English. After completing his
course he studied surveying, and for eighteen months he
worked as a surveyor. He then entered the employ of the
Pittsburgh Coal Company and afterward the Boomer Coal
& Coke Company, in which the late Marcus A. Hanna, of
Cleveland, Ohio, was one of the interested principals, and
in the interests of this corporation he came to Boomer,
West Virginia, where the company controlled coal mines.
In 1909 he came to Princeton and engaged in the general
merchandise business on a modest scale. From this nu-
cleus, with fair and honorable dealings and effective serv-
ice to patrons, he has developed the substantial and well or-
dered business of Hadden's Reliable Department Store,
which in every sense merits its title of '' reliable.'' Here
are handled dry goods and kindred lines, as well as ready-
to wear apparel for women and children. The success
which has attended the enterprise is the more gratifying to
record when it is recognized that Mr. Hadden has depended
entirely upon his own ability and efforts in making his
way to the goal of prosperity. He is a loyal member of
the Princeton Business Men's Club, is a charter member
of the Princeton Country Club, is affiliated with the Blue
Lodge, Chapter and Commandery of the York Rite of the
Masonic fraternity, and also with the Mystic Shrine, and
he and his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian
Church, of which his first wife likewise was a zealous mem-
ber.

In 1901 Mr. Hadden wedded Miss Frances J. Scott, of
Monongahela, Pennsylvania, and she is survived by three
children: Mildred, Harry and Josephine. In February,
1918, was recorded the marriage of Mr. Hadden and Miss
Edna French Lipps, daughter of David M. Lipps, who was
born in the State of Virginia. The one child of this sec-
ond marriage is a son, Earl.


From The History of West Virginia, Old and New, page 42-42

Submitted by Valerie F. Crook <vfcrook@trellis.net>

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