Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) was America’s most popular poet of his day. He was born in Portland, Maine and was a descendant of John Alden through his eldest daughter, Elizabeth. He was the grandson of Gen. Peleg Wadsworth, who fought in the Revolutionary War with George Washington. It is said that Henry was quite proud of his Alden and Wadsworth Duxbury roots. He was a professor at Bowdoin College in Maine.

Henry’s first wife died from complications from a miscarriage during a trip to Europe in 1835. While a professor at Harvard in 1836, Longfellow began courting Frances “Fanny” Appleton, the daughter of a Boston industrialist. In 1839 he wrote to a friend, “Victory hangs doubtful. The lady says she will not! I say she shall! It is not pride, but the madness of passion.” Longfellow frequently walked from Cambridge to the Appleton home on Beacon Hill by crossing the Boston Bridge. That bridge was replaced in 1906 by a new bridge, which was later named the Longfellow Bridge. In May of 1843, after a seven-year courtship, Fanny sent Longfellow a letter agreeing to marry him. They had six children -- two boys and four girls.

When daughter Fanny was born on April 7, 1847 her mother was administered ether as the first obstetric anesthetic in the United States. Tragically, Fanny died in 1861 while putting locks of her children’s hair in envelopes and sealing them with hot wax. Her dress caught fire, and though Henry tried to smother the flames with a rug and his body, she died the next day. He suffered burns on his body and face, to the extent that he had difficulty shaving. This is why his later photographs show him with a beard.

The Alden House passed from John to his son Capt. Jonathan Alden, who had acquired the property while his parents were still alive.  Col. John Alden, Capt. Jonathan and Abigail Hallett’s eldest son, inherited the homestead from his father’s estate in 1703 while his mother was still alive and he was 16 or 17 years old. Abigail continued to be active in the running of the farm. Although there had been a highway running across the farm since 1637, she was concerned about people crossing the property in an east-west direction to the Bay. This road was later to become St. George Street. Capt. Samuel Alden, a master mariner, was Col. John’s eldest son. He had no interest in the farm, but he was the only one with enough money to provide each of the heir’s inheritance and keep the farm together when his father died suddenly at the age of 60. Capt. Samuel and his brother Briggs Alden were Col. John’s only sons. Briggs was living on the farm and Capt. Samuel was living in England and all his business was conducted from London. He had married an English woman named Edith and he would not return to Duxbury. From 1739 until 1757, Capt. Samuel was the absentee owner of the farm. During this time Briggs worked and lived on the farm, marrying Mercy Wadsworth in 1741. Capt. Samuel left the farm to Briggs in 1757 when he died at age 45. Briggs and Mercy had nine children who reached adulthood. These brothers were very successful and were instrumental in the Alden family being able to keep the farm intact for over 170 years.

Col. Briggs Alden was active in the Minuteman militia during the Revolution, as were four of his sons. Judah was 25 and a second lieutenant, Nathaniel was 23 and a sergeant, Samuel was 18 and a private, and Amherst was 16 and a fifer in 1775. Briggs’ eldest son John drowned in the waters off Maine in 1766, and his son Samuel died in 1778 as a result of wounds received in General Lovell’s attack in the Penobscot River.

Judah Alden married Wealthea Wadsworth and built a modest house on the West End of the Alden Farm, just south of the land set off to Thomas Southworth, who had married Sarah, Capt. Jonathan’s daughter. By the time Judah had had five children, he built a more substantial house, which still stands, and is known as the Major Judah Alden house, at 189 Alden St. Wealthea Wadsworth Alden was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s great aunt.

Edith Alden, a daughter of Briggs, survived both parents and her brother Amherst, who became the next owner of the farm in 1793. Amherst sold parts of the east end of the farm and owned the rest for only eight years. When he died at age 45, following the tradition established by Capt. Samuel and Col. Briggs, he left his sister Edith and his mother money and the home, so that they would be comfortable.

There were other money bequests to brothers, deceased sisters’ children, and his namesake five-month-old Amherst Fraser, his neighbor. He was an unsung Alden, who did not marry and left no children. He did leave a bequest to a Lucy Turner, of Marshfield, of money to buy 12 silver spoons. She later married Capt. John Thomas of Marshfield -- the one patriot in that loyalist family. The farm, although now half the size of the original, was left to Amherst’s older brother, Major Judah Alden. Amherst knew that Judah would not move into the Alden House, thus allowing his mother and sister to live out their lives in a house of their own.

See part three of this story in an upcoming edition. Check out Monty’s blog at duxburyspilgrimsandtheirland.com.