ALBERT MARTIN ALDEN AND FAMILY

ALBERT MARTIN ALDEN, oldest child of Lyman and Nancy (Doran) Alden, was b. 10-24-1838on the family farm near Solon, Cortland Co., N.Y., m. (1) 1-25-1860, Maria Elizabeth Shedd, daughter of Rev. Charles and Eliza (Rowell) Shedd, who was b. 1-11-1837 and d. 8-3-1871, (2) 7-29-1872, Harriet Emily (Harwood) Pardee, daughter of Aaron and Susan (Gifford) Harwood and widow of Joseph Pardee, who was b. 12-14-1838 and d. 1-29-1887, (3) 1-25-1888, Laura Belle Alexander, daughter of David S. and Sarah (Dick) Alexander, who was b. 5-15-1855 and d. May 9, 1935, Omaha, Nebraska.

Little is known about Albert's boyhood. He and his older half-brother William were so busy with the farm work that they could not be spared to attend school more than the three winter months when farm work slackened. Then William and Albert worked for their board after school for the local shopkeeper; and slept on the floor under the counters. However, both boys were avidly interested in reading literature, history and current events, so were mostly self-educated.

After William left home more responsibilities fell on Albert for making a living for the family. Some time in the early fifties the family migrated to Iowa, and in 1855 Albert, at the age of 17, was sent on horseback by his father to southern Minnesota to find a farm for the family to homestead. He found one in Dodge Co., near Wasioja, to which the family moved early in 1856. Lyman ran a general store and Albert was really his right hand man; clerking, keeping books and helping with the farm work. This gave Albert the early training which came in good stead in following his life-long mercantile pursuits.

By this time, besides brother Charles, 13 years old, there were four sisters in the family - Wealthy 16, Maritta 14, May 11, and Catherine 10 years old. While the expense of travel made it difficult for these six children and half-brother William to be together, they kept in close contact by corresponding their entire lives. However, Maritta and her husband Frank Gere, who were farming in northeast Iowa, made frequent visits to Albert, Charles and Mary.

Charles was the life of any family group. He left a wonderful memory with all who knew him. His wonderful outlook on life and his pride in being able to more than support himself in spite of his loss of sight and sense of smell marked him as a must unusual man and one whom it was a delight to know. He played the accordion, sand, and radiated sunshine and kindness wherever he went.

On January 25, 1860, three months after Albert was 21, he married Maria Elizabeth Shedd of Wasioja, whose father, Rev. Charles Shedd, was a Congregational missionary and whose mother was a teacher in the Wasioja Academy of which Grandpa Shedd was in charge. This couple did much to raise the literary standards of the community. About this time, "Pickwick Papers was being published in London. A friend of Grandma Shedd copied the chapters in long hand and sent them to her to be used in the Pickwick Club of Wasioja to which Maria and Albert also belonged before and after their marriage.

While living near Wasioja, Maria and Albert had two children, Emma Elizabeth, 10-27-1860, and William Albert, 4-1-1862. Soon after Albert moved his family to Rochester, Minn., so he could work as clerk and bookkeeper in J. B. Blake's Dept. Store. Jennie Marcia was born there, 6-11-1864. About two years later they moved to Spring Valley where Albert opened his own general store. He first rented the Elliot house where Bertha Florence was born, 11-20-1866, then built a cottage on Park Ave. were Edwin Worcester was born, 6-29-1869. Albert and Elizabeth were active members of the Congregational Church there - which Rev. Shedd had organized. Albert was also active in civic affairs and became a 32 degree Mason and a Knight Templar.

On Aug. 3, 1871 our mother died very suddenly. She was buried in Spring Valley. Our father obtained the help of Mrs. Anna Root, a friendly grandmother living on a nearby farm. She was gentle and affectionate, but unable to control the five lively orphans. Our father grew thin and worried under the trying conditions.

In the fall of 1871 the members of the Congregational Church though a change would be good for him and asked him to be their delegate to a church convention in Minneapolis. Father had heretofore bought his merchandise in La Crosse. He decided he could do this in Minneapolis and accepted the church offer.

Grandfather Shedd was also a delegate. They went together and were assigned to the home of Mrs. J. H. Pardee. She was the widow of Mr. Pardee who had been married twice before. The first wife left a son, Walter Stone Pardee, the second a daughter, Mary Alice Pardee. There was also an unmarried sister, Ella Harwood, living with Mrs. Pardee who had inherited the new seven bedroom, well furnished frame house built by Mr. Pardee on an acre of land at 5th St. and 13th Ave., S.E. Mrs. Pardee felt she should do something worthwhile, so was looking for four children to adopt. It was ot difficult for her to change her plans and take our father with his five.

The next February our father went to Minneapolis, ostensibly to buy goods, but on Feb. 29, 1872, he and Mrs. Pardee were married, and went at once to Spring Valley. Our father told us on their arrival that he had gotten another mother to care for us. She went to work at once to get the family in shape to move to Minneapolis. Father sold his house and store, and on July 24, 1872, we moved to Minneapolis to live in her home there.

The train ride was a wonderful adventure for the children. The two inherited children of Mrs. Pardee, Walter and Matie, were waiting in the front year with the neighbor children to welcome the group of Aldens. The Pardee home had spacious grounds arranged for children's pleasure, including a swing and croquet grounds. It was a great change for us. Walter was 18 and Matie 13, about the age of our sister Elizabeth. We called the two girls twins, and sometimes they were dressed alike.

Our father opened a grocery store at 246 Nicollet Ave. next to the Nicollet House, later the Nicollet Hotel. Things looked prosperous, but the new city had no drainage system and the basements would often be flooded by heavy rains which ruined the merchandise stored there. Later he built a store on Second Ave. South near Fourth St. and moved there in 1876. It was a lonely looking building and seemed far away from the business center at Washington and Nicollet. Panics and other calamities added to his troubles. There were four more children added between 1873 and 1882, Harwood, Lyman, Harriet and Ruth.

In those days stores opened at 7 A.M. and closed at 9 P.M. The store had to be made ready for the next day, letters written, etc. Home was two or more miles away. Horses and other animals had to be taken care of as well as home fires. Father always took care of his children at night. Bertha had croup frequently and Jennie had tonsilitis. The stair door was always left open so he could keep track of us and he never failed to do this. The three younger children slept downstairs. If ever a father was more patient and faithful, he was. Edwin took a server cold about 1778 and for ears suffered from rheumatic fever.

On June 28, 1882, Lizzie was married to James T. Elwell. Soon after, Edwin became very ill and died Sept. 15, 1882. Our new mother's health failed seriously and times were very hard for us. For two years Jane had to give up school and help at home. In 1884 she took a course in shorthand and got a job in October. She worked 11 months and on December 9, 1885 was married to George S. Grimes, a young attorney. In the summer of 1885 he built a house on Beard Ave. and Fourth St. where their first child, John Alden Grimes, was born Nov. 6, 1886.

In January 1887 our mother and stepmother died. Sister Bertha took over the care of the home. In January 1888 our father married Laura Belle Alexander, a former school teacher. Bertha went to live with Lizzie and was married in her home on May 15, 1888, to Mr. Willard W. Morse. About this time our father's own parents found it difficult to stay alone on the farm in Dodge County so they rented it and came to Minneapolis to live. Father, who always looked after his father and mother, built a small house for them in his side yard with a garden surrounded by a fence with a gate. He often stopped in to see them. His sister Mary cared for them there during their last years.

After our second mother's death, our father went in the Real Estate business, working along with our brother Will, who had married Ida Bowen and lived in a home built on the Pardee property, facing 13th St. This was said to have been a wedding present to Will from his father. Father also built a double three story house facing Sixth St. After mother's death our family moved into the east side of this duplex. In the fall of that year we moved to a new home at 2295 Doswell Ave., St. Anthony Park - part of St. Paul, but bordering on S.E. Minneapolis.

In the panic of 1893 father lost most of his real estate holdings. He had mortgaged one piece of property to get title to another and when the crash came found he had nothing left and even the new home was mortgaged. Both parents suffered from the financial worries. The mother, whose health had not been good and who now had two young children to care for, Catherine born 5-29-1890, and John born 1-20-1892, was in still poorer health and was advised by her physician to move to a milder climate. In the winter of 1893 and 94 the "Oregon fever" was prevalent in the Twin Cities. THis seemed to offer the remedy for the failing mother, so the family moved to Eugene, Oregon, in Feb. 1895, the mortgage on our home having expired in January. Eugene was a town of about 3000 population and the seat of the State University.

Our father and brother Lyman departed for Oregon on a freight car with our household goods, a cow, and some pure bred horses. Father had been able to obtain the horses in exchange for some North Dakota land. He had been led to believe that he could find a ready market for the horses on arriving i Eugene, but most of them died from cold enroute. Mother and the four children stayed at Uncle Charley's home until we had word from father to start west Feb. 15. Father met our train in Portland. Our mother had not been able to leave her train berth for two days, suffering from the "grip" and was confined to her bed for several weeks after our arrival in Eugene. Father had rented a comfortable home in the east end of town - with large grounds - orchard barnyard, etc. He had everything nicely settled for us.

The following winter father bought 20 acres of fruit and woodland in the hills southwest of Eugene where he and Lyman built a house and moved the family in the early spring. He set out 10 acres to prunes and a home orchard. Lyman cut cord wood and hauled it to town in exchange for groceries to supplement our fruit and garden produce and cow's milk. Sister Harriet had entered the Preparatory Dept. of the University, taking the place of high school, in the fall of 1895. When we moved to the hills she helped in the home of one of our church friends during the week in school years for her board.

During the winter of 1896 and 97 she and Ruth had a room together in a widow's home and boarded themselves, bringing food in on Sunday when the family came in for church to last till Friday afternoon when father took them home. In spite of mother's illness, our father had taken us to the Congregational Church in Eugene where the people were most friendly and we soon made many fine friends. We earned some money in the summer packing prunes. Lyman also worked in the Prune drying plant.

Before school opened in the fall of 1897 the family moved to town so as to be near schools for Harriet, Ruth and Catherine, and near the University so as to take in student boarders. Lyman had been busy helping his father with farm work during the first two years in Oregon so that he hadn't attended school. When the family moved to town Lyman (now 20) left for Minneapolis and entered Central High School, staying in the home of his sister Jennie Grimes.

In April 1898, three years after they had left in 1895, Harriet and Ruth returned to Minneapolis. Harriet stayed with her sister Bertha Morse and Ruth with her sister Jennie Grimes, both working for their board. The remainder of the family returned to Minneapolis in August in time for the opening of the school. Our brother Will had just opened up a department in "The New Store" for rugs, carpets, draperies, etc. and employed our father as a rug salesman at $50.00 per month. Father rented a home for us at 1210 First St. N. within walking distance of The New Store, Plymouth Church where we were members, and schools. We lived there one year.

Lyman had lost two years of school while in Oregon and Harriet one year in changing school location. All three entered Central High School in Minneapolis that fall, Harriet as a senior and Lyman and Ruth as juniors. As the end of the first semester approached, Harriet recognized that her father was having a difficult time trying to meet the family expenses and keep the children in school. As lyman was "on his own" (just past 21), Harriet, always alert to family problems, decided it was her duty to do something to help. She left high school at the end of the semester and obtained a small loan from her Uncle Charley so as to take an intensive business course to qualify her for a secretarial position. At the end of the 3 months course she was so well qualified that she had no difficulty obtaining and keeping a position. After working for a lawyer on a temporary job she took a permanent position as business secretary for an elevator architect and builder which she held until just before her marriage two years later. She turned over to her father all her earnings except the very small amount necessary for her own personal expenses. This was a life saver to her father who thereby was able to keep his head above water and the other three children in school. To have helped her father in this instance was reward enough to her for her sacrifice. But it ended any thought of carrying out her ambition to continue through school and college which she had anticipated with much enthusiasm as she was always in the top bracket in her school work.

Lyman and Ruth finished high school the following year (1900). Lyman then took three years of mechanical engineering in the University of Minnesota, paying his way handling a newspaper route. Ruth borrowed for her expenses of two years at Winona Normal School to qualify for her chosen profession as teacher.

In the early spring of 1901 Albert M. Alden and family moved to Willmar, Minn. He was sent there by the New Store to dispose of the merchandise of a store that had gone into bankruptcy. They remained there about a year. Harriet and Ruth remained in Minneapolis, Harriet in a secretarial position and Ruth a public school teacher. While the family was in Willmar, Harriet and Archie were married on June 3, and established their home in S.E. Minneapolis. The family returned to Minneapolis in the fall and bought a home at 2218 Ilion Ave. N. where they lived until after their father died. Mother had the house made into a duplex and lived on the second floor which was her home until Catherine graduated from high school in 1908.

Shortly after Christmas in 1903 Will sent his father out with a horse and buggy to collect some long-standing accounts for the New Store. The weather turned very cold and his father contracted a severe cold which turned into pneumonia, from which he died on March 7, 1904.

Albert Alden was a man of character and presented a striking appearance. He was 5' 10" tall, with a spare frame, black hair and beard, blue eyes. He was gentle and quiet in manner and was a remarkable disciplinarian. He never raised his voice; a mere 'hush' or 'hark' from him would immediately quiet any disturbance the children might be making.

He was a fine reader and read aloud to his family ever Sunday afternoon, mostly from books as Pilgrim's Progress, Longfellow, and Whittier's Poems and serial stories in The Advance, the Congregational weekly magazine. He always had family worship after breakfast, however early, reading passages from the Bible and making a short prayer, for which all the family knelt.

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THis biographic sketch of Albert Martin Alden was prepared in 1961, mostly from recollections of four of his daughters, Jane Alden Grimes, Bertha Alden Morse, Harriet Alden Wheeler, and Ruth Alden Aldrich, and was assembled and edited by William Archie Wheeler, the compiler of this genealogy.

Source: "Wheeler-Alden Family Part I : a contribution to a knowledge of the genealogy and family history of the families of Albert Martin Alden and his wife, Maria Elizabeth Shedd, and families of their descendants" ⁹⁷⁴⁴

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MARIA ELIZABETH (SHEDD) ALDEN, daughter of Charles and Eliza (Rowell) Shedd, was b. 1-11-1837 at New Ipswich, New Hampshire. SHe was educated in the public schools and at home and graduated from the New Ipswich Female Academy in 1855. In 1856 her parents, with their family, moved to the West, going from New Hampshire to Minnesota as Home Missionaries. They went by covered wagon to St. Louis, Mo., and from there by boat on the Mississippi to Iowa, again taking covered wagon to Zumbrota, Minn. Her parents settled there and started a Congregational Church at once. A church building was put up and dedicated in 1857.

Elizabeth taught the first school in Zumbrota. After many years, a memorial, consisting of maps and a large globe for the school, was established in her memory, recognizing Maria Elizabeth Shedd as the first school teacher in Zumbrota. A picture of Elizabeth was hung in the Superintendent's office and an inscription was written commemorating her efforts.

On January 25, 1860, she married Albert Martin Alden, a bookkeeper and clerk in the largest store in Rochester, Minn. After three or four years Mr. and Mrs. Alden moved to Spring Valley, Minn. where Mr. Alden started a general store of his own. Both Mr. and Mrs. Alden did much for the Congregational Church and Missionary Society and were most helpful in all projects in the town. THey were active in political affairs also and made many choice friends. Pioneer life was hard and Elizabeth's health began to fail with all the responsibilities of housekeeping, church work, and caring for her five children. She was a devoted wife and loving mother and left many good friends to mourn her loss when she died August 3, 1870. She was buried in the family lot in Spring Valley, her youngest son, Edwin, beside her.