Henry Mills Alden

Life Before Metuchen
     Henry Mills Alden was born November 11, 1836, in  Mount Tabor, Vermont.  At the age of eight, he was working fourteen hours per day, as a factory cleaner. While Alden was growing up, he had a passion to write. While he got older, he started writing for multiple magazines and papers including the New York Times and The New York Evening Post. As an adult, he moved to Metuchen, and that is where he stayed for the rest of his life.

Harper’s Weekly                                                                           

     When Alden moved to Metuchen, he wanted to continue his career as an editor and writer, so he began editing for Harper’s Weekly. Harper’s Weekly was a magazine in the 1800s and early 1900s. Henry Mills Alden was the editor for the magazine and wrote some articles for it as well. As Alden kept working for Harper’s Weekly, he began to work for Harper’s monthly. This created a bigger impact on the town and made the magazine more popular.

     Alden helped the community become a better place.He helped by inspiring many people to become writers and bringing “good vibes”  from the magazine. Alden also inspired famous people like Mary Wilkins Freeman to write. He contributed to the happiness and the good feelings of the town, and helped bring people together. Alden also helped people mentally by making them feel better. His work helped aid the “broken pieces” of the town, and overall, Metuchen was a better place because of his writing.

     Alden’s work was the reason famous people came to the area, which was a big  impact to the town. Some people that came to Metuchen included Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, Helen Keller, Ogden Nash, and Joseph Pulitzer. His work also “advertised” the town, and Metuchen became more of a popular area. The famous people coming to the town contributed to the growth in population because Metuchen seemed like more of a place where people wanted to be.

By- K.B. And A.B.

Sources-

Metuchen The Brainy Borough By The Metuchen Historic Preservation Committee

Find A Grave Memorial

https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=76449875

Harpers.org

https://harpers.org