Robert Alden
| Edwin Hyde Alden | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
January 14, 1836 Windsor, Vermont, USA |
| Died | May 6, 1911 (aged 75) Chester, Vermont |
| Occupation |
Congregational Church minister |
| Spouse(s) | Twice married |
Congregational Church minister
Reverend Edwin Hyde Alden, known as Robert Alden (January 14, 1836 – May 6, 1911) was one of the many real people upon whom Laura Ingalls Wilder based a character in the "Little House on the Prairie" series of books and the NBC television series of the same name.
Reverend Alden was born in Windsor, Vermont. He was the founding pastor of First Congregational Church in 1868. This was the first organized church in Waseca, Minnesota. He was the minister of the Congregational Church in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, described in the book "On the Banks of Plum Creek". He was a home missionary, having a church in the East, involved in planting new churches, such as the one in Walnut Grove, on the western frontier, which he founded in 1875, with Charles and Caroline Ingalls being among the first baptized members.
When the Ingalls family left Walnut Grove, they were convinced they would never see him again, but he unexpectedly appeared in Dakota Territory, which Laura Ingalls Wilder mentioned in "By the Shores of Silver Lake". Reverend Alden held the first church service in De Smet in February, 1880, in the surveyors' house in which the Ingalls were temporarily living. He also informed the family about the Iowa College for the Blind in Vinton, Iowa at this time, which Mary Ingalls eventually attended.
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