City Readers Digital Historic Collections at the New York Society Library

Roger Alden, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, public official, land speculator, and politician, was born in Lebanon, Connecticut in 1754. Alden graduated Yale University in 1773 and beginning in 1778 served as an officer in the Revolutionary War, first with the Second Connecticut Regiment (Schuyler 152). He was an aide-de-camp to both Generals Nathanael Greene and Jedidiah Huntington. Alden was elected Deputy Secretary of the Continental Congress under Secretary Charles Thomson in 1785, and was Deputy Secretary for Foreign Affairs in the new government established under the Constitution in 1789. Between 1795 and 1825, Alden lived in Meadville in the Western Pennsylvania frontier, where he was a land agent for the Holland Land Company, a prominent landowner, and a politician. Alden left Meadville to become ordinance storekeeper at West Point in 1825 and postmaster in 1826; he held these positions until his death. He was an original member of the Connecticut and New York State chapters of the Society of Cincinnati. 

Roger Alden married Eliza Carver on February 11, 1801, in Pennsylvania. His son, Captain Bradford Alden, was an aide to General Winfield Scott and commandant of West Point.

With the establishment of the new government under the Constitution in 1789, President George Washington designated Roger Alden, as Deputy Secretary for Foreign Affairs, to receive custody of "the books, records, and papers of the late" Continental Congress (Hunt 605), including the Declaration of Independence, which had been housed in New York City Hall beginning in 1785.

During his years in Pennsylvania, Alden presided over a public meeting in Meadville on June 20, 1815, that founded Alleghany College. He was also involved in the only duel ever fought in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, with lawyer Alexander W. Foster, at Meadville (Ilisevich). 

Roger Alden died at West Point, NY in 1836, and is buried at the United States Military Academy Post Cemetery.