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Below is a family biography included in The Portrait and Biographical Record of Randolph, Jackson, Perry and Monroe Counties, Illinois published by Biographical Publishing Co. in 1894.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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ROY ALDEN, editor and proprietor of the Democrat, of Pickneyville, is numbered among the native sons of Perry County, his birth having occurred in Tamaroa on the 22d of July, 1863. His grandfather, Royal Alden, was a native of New England, and was a direct descendant of John Alden, who came to this country in the “Mayflower” with the Pilgrim Fathers. Royal Alden engaged in school teaching, and was a man of more than average intelligence and ability. In 1869 he emigrated to Illinois, and for a time served as Deputy County Clerk of Hamilton County, where he made his home.

The father of our subject, Col. A. J. Alden, was a native of North Carolina and was a printer by trade. At the breaking out of the Civil War he was serving as Circuit Clerk of Hamilton County, but resigned his position in order to enter the army. He was made Captain of a company of infantry, and being captured during the war, was confined in Tyler and other southern prisons. After being liberated, he resigned his commission on account of ill-health, but later he again went to the front as Major of a company of cavalry. Subsequently, he was promoted to the rank of Colonel, which position he filled until honorably discharged after the fall of Richmond. On his return from the war he engaged in merchandising and also edited a newspaper in Du Quoin, but for the past eight years he has been in the Government printing office in Washington. He married Beady Penny, sister of J. J. Penny, editor of the Murphysboro Independent.

Our subject was the only son in the Alden family. As early as seven years of age we find him in his father’s newspaper office, where he picked up the business, becoming familiar with the art of printing in all of its branches. He first embarked in the newspaper business on his own account in Mississippi, but the venture was not a profitable one. He was then a youth of only seventeen years. So for a time he gave up the newspaper business and accepted a position with the Southern Express Company, with headquarters at Cairo, Ill. He filled various capacities, from clerk to manager, but at length severed his connection with that company to again embark in newspaper work. In 1891 he bought out the Democrat, of Pinckneyville, of which he is now editor and proprietor, and which he has since conducted with marked success. It is one of the neatest and best edited papers in southern Illinois, and is receiving a liberal patronage, which has constantly increased from the beginning, and which will be much farther enlarged, for the paper is in all ways worthy of extensive circulation.

Mr. Alden is a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the Knights of Pythias and the Odd Fellows’ societies. He is interested in everything pertaining to the welfare of the community in which he makes his home, and is one of the popular and highly respected citizens of Pinckneyville.

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This family biography is one of 679 biographies included in The Portrait and Biographical Record of Randolph, Jackson, Perry and Monroe Counties, Illinois published in 1894.  View the complete description here: The Portrait and Biographical Record of Randolph, Jackson, Perry and Monroe Counties, Illinois

View additional Perry County, Illinois family biographies here: Perry County, Illinois Biographies

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