The Biographical Dictionary of America/Alden, Joseph

ALDEN, Joseph, educator, was born in Cairo, N.Y., Jan. 4, 1807. He began to teach school when fourteen years of age, in order to pay his way through college. He was thus enabled to attend Brown university, 1826-'27, and was graduated at Union college in 1829. He studied theology at Princeton, 1829-'31; was tutor at the College of New Jersey, 1831-'33; was ordained to the ministry of the Congregational Church, July 3, 1834; was pastor at Williamstown, Mass., 1834-'36; professor of rhetoric, political economy, and history at Williams college, 1835-'52; of mental and moral philosophy in Lafayette college, 1852-'57; president of Jefferson college, 1857-'62; stated supply, Boiling Spring, N.J., 1863-'65; editor N.Y. Observer, 1866; and principal of the State normal school, Albany, N.Y., 1867-'82. He received the degree of D.D. from Union in 1839, and that of LL.D. from Columbia in 1857. He is the author of "Elements of Intellectual Philosophy"; "Science of Government in Connection with American Institutions"; "Christian Ethics"; "The Science of Duty"; "Studies in Bryant"; and "Thoughts on the Religious Life," with an introduction by William Cullen Bryant, besides over seventy Sunday school library books. He died in New York city, Aug. 30, 1885.