"New York Canoe Club." His published works include "Domestic Explosives" (1878); "Shooting Stars" (1879); "Canoe and Plying Proa" (1880); "The Moral Pirates" (1881); "Life of Christopher Columbus " (1882) ; " The Cruise of the Ghost " (1882); "The Cruise of the Canoe Club" (1888); and "Adventures of Jimmy Brown " (1885).
ALDEN, Roger, soldier, b. in "Lebanon, Conn.,
11 Feb., 1754; d. in West Point, N. Y., 5 Nov.,
1836. He was graduated at Yale in 1773, and
served in the revolutionary war as aide to Gen.
Greene. Subsequently he became agent of the
Holland Land Co., and resided at Meadville, Pa.,
from 1795 to 1825. He was appointed ordnance
storekeeper at West Point, 20 Jan., 1825, and remained as such until his death. He was a great-grandson of John Alden.—His son, Bradford Ripley, soldier, b. in Meadville, Pa., in 1800; d. in Newport, R. I., 10 Sept., 1870. After graduation at West Point in 1831 he passed through the usual experiences of young officers in camp and garrison life with the 4th Infantry. He was an instructor at West Point in 1833-'40, and then served for nearly two years as aide to Gen. Scott. After three years of garrison duty he was appointed commandant at West Point, 14 Dec, 1845, and remained there until 1 Nov., 1852. In the frontier service that followed, he led an important expedition against the Rouge river Indians, was severely wounded in action, 24 Aug., 1853, and resigned in consequence on the 29th of September in the same year. He never fully recovered from his wound, and was unable to serve in the civil war. He was a man of fine literary taste and culture, and passed several years of his civil life in Europe.
ALDEN, Timothy, clergvman, b. in Yarmouth,
Mass., 28 Aug., 1771 ; d. in Pittsburg, 5 July, 1839.
He studied at Harvard, distinguishing himself by
his knowledge of oriental languages, and was
graduated in 1794. From 1799 to 1805 he was
pastor to the Congregational church in Portsmouth,
N. II., where from 1800 to 1808 he taught school.
Subsequently he conducted schools for young ladies
in Boston, Newark, Cincinnati, an I East Liberty,
Pa. In 1817 he founded Alleghany college, Meadville, Pa., and became its first president, retiring
in 1831. He published a collection of epitaphs
and inscriptions (5 vols., 1814); "An Account of
Sundry Missions among the Senecas" (1827); and
other works, and prepared a valuable catalogue of
the library of the New York historical society.
ALDEN, Timothy, inventor, b. in Barnstable,
Mass., in 1819; d. in New York, 4 Dec, 1858. He
was the sixth in descent from John Alden, of
"Mayflower" fame. When very young, setting
type in his brother's printing office, he said: "If I
live, I will invent a machine to do this tiresome
work." He labored steadily, devoted his leisure
to study, and jn 1846 began the construction of a
composing and distributing machine. His idea
was to arrange the type in cells around the circumference of a horizontal wheel. By the rotation of
the wheel, several receivers are also made to rotate, and these pick up the proper types from their respective cells. His brother. Henry W. Alden, made many improvements after the death of the inventor.
ALDRICH, James, poet, b. in Suffolk co., N.
Y., in 1810; d. in October. 1856. He entered
early into mercantile life, but at twenty-six years
of age, having had some success as a writer, he
abandoned business for literature. Several popular periodicals were conducted by him, and in 1840
he established the " Literary (gazette," in which
appeared many of his poems, which pleased the
popular taste. Of these " A Death-Bed " is the best
known, particular attention being called to it by
Edgar A. Poe, who pointed out its striking resemblance to a poem by Hood on the same subject. In
the latter part of his life he resumed his business
pursuits. See Rufus W. Griswold's "Poets and Poetry of Am.erica."
ALDRICH, Nelson Wilmarth, senator, b. in
Foster, R. I., 6 Nov., 1841. He received an academic education, and engaged in mercantile pursuits. He was president of the Providence common
council in 1872-3, a member of the Rhode Island
general assembly in 1875-'G. serving in 1876 as
speaker of the house of representatives, and was
elected to congress in 1878 and 1880. He was
elected to the IJ. S. senate as a republican, to succeed Gen. Burnside, and took his seat 5 Dec, 1881.
ALDRICH. Thomas Bailey, author, b. in
Portsmouth, N. H., 11 Nov., 1836. His early
youth was passed In Louisiana. He began a course
of study preparatory to entering college, but, on
the death of his father, he abandoned
it to enter the
counting-room of
his uncle, a merchant in New York
city. Here he remained three years,
and here he began
to contribute prose
and verse to various journals. His
"Ballad of Babie
Bell" (1856) won
immediate and universal favor, and
this, with other
successes, induced
him to enter upon a
literary career. At
first he was a proof-reader, then a
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"reader" for a publishing-house. He became a frequent contributor to "Putnam's Magazine," the "Knickerbocker." and the weekly papers, and afterward to the New York "Evening Mirror." In 1856 he joined the staff of the New York " Home Journal," then under the management of Willis and Morris, with whom he remained three years. He was editor of "Every Saturday," Boston, so long as it was published, 1870-'4. For several years he had written almost exclusively for the "Atlantic Monthly," when in March, 1881, he became its editor. His published volumes of poetry are "The Dells" (1855); "The Ballad of Babie Bell" and other poems (1856); "The Course of True Love never did run Smooth" (1858); "Pampinea and other Poems" (1861); two collections of "Poems" (1863 and 1865); "Cloth of Gold and other Poems " (1874); "Flower and Thorn; Later Poems" (1876); an edition de luxe of his Lyrics and Sonnets ( 1880); and "Friar Jerome's Beautiful Book " (1881). His prose works are "Daisy's Necklace" (1856); "Out of his Head, a Romance in Prose " (1862); "Story of a Bad Boy." which is in some degree autobiographical (1870); "Marjorie Daw and other People," short stories (1873); " Prudence Palfrey," a novel (1874); "The Queen of Sheba." a romance of travel (1877); "The Stillwater Tragedv" (1880); " From Ponkapog to Pesth" (1883); and "Mercedes" (1883). He has translated from the French, Bedollierre's "Story of a Cat." Complete collections of his prose writings
