The Oldest Piece Of Land Still Owned By The Original Family In The Country Founded By Pilgrims John And Priscilla Alden
The modest, grey-shingled house at the end of a wooded lane gives little outward indication of its place in American history and literature. The survivor of an earlier age, this is the home of the Alden Family, founded by Pilgrims John Alden and his wife Priscilla. Their romance, immortalized by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his epic poem, “The Courtship of Miles Standish”, entered the mythology of America and helped popularize the erroneous but widespread notion that the Pilgrims founded the first colony in the New World.
“This is the oldest piece of land still owned by the original family in the country,” Steve Fisher, volunteer guide at the Alden House, tells The Buzz. “John and Priscilla both came to Plymouth aboard the Mayflower in 1620. He was the ship’s cooper, and we think he may not have intended to stay. Priscilla Mullins came with her family, but they all died during that first terrible winter when half of all the Pilgrims died. They married in 1623, when she was 19 and he was 23. They received this land in 1627, and by then they had three children.”
The acreage in Duxbury, across Plymouth Bay from the original colony, was distributed by lot. The first town established as the Pilgrims spread out from their landing site, Duxbury was named for the English home of the Standish family and a statue of the Pilgrim captain towers over the harbor on a hill, now the Myles Standish Monument State Reservation. His remains, along with those of the Aldens and other prominent Pilgrims, lie in the Myles Standish Burial Ground in the heart of Duxbury. The oldest original stone to survive there is that of Renee Wright Alden, youngest son of John and Priscilla.
The Alden farm lay close to the Bluefish River, important, says Fisher, because Pilgrims were required to attend church every Sunday and, for many years, the only sanctuary was in Plymouth. “At first, they probably spent the winter in Plymouth, so they could get to services,” explains Fisher.
John Alden built his first house by the river, but by the 1650s, the original structure seemed a tight fit for the couple’s ten children. Family tradition says that, in 1653, the Aldens began a new house a few hundred yards away atop a hill. There it stands still, a monument to one family’s determination to make a new life in a new world.
Now a National Historic Site, the Alden House is owned by the Alden Kindred of America, a society formed in 1901 to preserve and promote the history of John and Priscilla, and is open for public tours. “People have been coming since Longfellow’s poem was published in 1858,” says Desiree Mobed, current director of the Alden Kindred. “We have people come from all over the world, China, Europe, to see where America started, and how one of the founding families lived.” The ever-growing Alden tribe is the largest among the Mayflower descendant families.
A tour of the Alden House provides a fascinating glimpse of how the family - and the house - grew through the centuries. Steve Fisher leads visitors through the house pointing out how it grew from the original two-room structure as subsequent generations added on. Colonel John Alden added a kitchen and the west wing in 1711. The 1730s saw the addition of embellishments including a chair rail, built-in cabinets and a plaster ceiling. Original gunstock beams and stone fireplaces have been restored, as has the floor constructed of 26-inch wide oak boards. “They don’t have trees like that anymore,” Fisher relates.
The house is decorated with antiques and family memorabilia gathered by members of the Kindred, Fisher says. An upstairs loft houses four spinning wheels, similar to what Priscilla worked on in the poem. Various unusual items are on display including a strangely shaped wooden playpen and a cranberry scoop. A much-used fiddle in the Great Room was brought back to Massachusetts by a free black man who came north with an Alden who fought in the Civil War. Samplers stitched by Alden women, family portraits and a rare early photograph of Capt. Jack Alden, taken in 1876, hang on the walls.
Capt. Jack features in one of the family’s more colorful stories, according to our guide. When family matriarch Aunt Paulie died, the captain and his brother Henry, both in their 60s, inherited the house. “They both lived here till they died,” Fisher says, “but they never spoke.”
Aunt Paulie’s will gave them each the right to use the front door, but the brothers divided the rest of the house, erecting walls so they didn’t run into each other. “You can still see where Capt. Jack’s half was,” Fisher points out. “He painted his half green and put up wallpaper. Henry added his own staircase. It was Yankee ingenuity at work.”
Also on display are artifacts discovered during the archeological dig of the original Alden House site, just down the hill, where John brought his bride. Longfellow, who himself was an Alden descendant through his mother, claimed his poem was based on stories preserved within the family, including Priscilla’s famous line: “Speak for yourself, John.” Historians have confirmed that Standish and Alden were indeed early roommates at the Plymouth Colony.
The poem’s finale, as Myles and John make up their differences and return to friendship, is certainly based on fact. The Alden and Standish families lived together as neighbors for many years as Duxbury thrived. In the 1680s, John and Priscilla’s daughter Sarah married Alexander Standish, son of Myles. The couple’s eight children and their descendants today swell the ranks of the Alden Kindred.
Renee Wright
A graduate of Franconia College in Social Psychology, Renee has worked as Travel Editor for Charlotte Magazine and has written three travel guidebooks for Countryman Press among other writing assignments. She enjoys food and camping.
Make Sure To Stay At:
Pinewood Lodge Campground, nestled in 200 acres of white pine forest. There are 300 beautifully shaded sites, some in secluded tenting areas and others with full facilities for almost any size rig. Located on a 50-acre fresh water lake.