REV. TIMOTHY ALDEN (JR AND SR)--Page 1

The former president of Allegheny College, Meadeville, PA, was born in Yarmouth August 28, 1771. His accomplishments are many, but particularly appreciated from a genealogical standpoint is his contribution to the Alden family genealogy. He was the first to record the now-famous love-triangle story (see John Alden.) He authored a book series called “Collection Of American Epitaphs”—five books total, all now very expensive. The love-triangle story is also to be found there. Clearly Rev. Timothy was proud of his Mayflower ancestor.

Rev. Timothy Alden was a 1794 graduate of Harvard College. His father, also Rev. Timothy Alden, was pastor at Yarmouth for over 60 years. Rev. Timothy the younger did not start out to become a pastor—he was a teacher for a few years at Marblehead, MA and was ‘licensed to preach’ while he was there, in 1799. He was co-pastor of a church in NH for a while, and then he opened a Ladies’ College in Boston. From Boston to NY, and then from NY to PA, he was basically an educator, not a minister. However, it is said he had a true love for missionary work, and he worked among Seneca and Muncie Indian tribes in NY and PA.

ALDEN, REV. TIMOTHY SR.

The father, Rev. Timothy Alden, Sr. passed away in 1828, after a 60-year ministry in the same place. He was 92. His wife was Sarah Weld, of Attleboro, who had died in 1796, aged 59. There was published a useful physical description of Rev. Alden in the book The History Of Cape Cod (see sources) by Frederick Freeman:

(Vol. 1, Pg. 231)

"We vividly recall the appearance of this aged gentleman, as we saw him last, at the ordination of Mr. Hersey at Barnstable, in 1824. Seated among the clergy and distinguished attendants on the platform, his antique wig conspicuous, in small-clothes, with knee and shoe buckles, and three-cornered hat lying near by—objects of interest to the young,--we regarded his venerable aspect with thoughts running back to antiquity. He sat there, as sometimes stands a solitary, aged oak surrounded by the younger growth of a later period. It was to us the last exhibition of the great wigs and cocked hats; it left also impressions of a bygone age long to be remembered."

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