During William Gannaway Brownlow's campaign for Governor of Tennessee in 1865, he acted as a registrar for Davidson County.[2] Alden served as the mayor of Nashville from 1867 to 1868.[4] Historians have argued Governor Brownlow staged Alden's Nashville Mayoral election of 1867.[5] Others have argued he won the election thanks to African-American voters.[2] When Mayor William Matt Brown (1865-1867) accused him of stealing the election, Governor Brownlow sent General Joseph Alexander Cooper to calm the situation down and let Alden move into his new office.[2]
Personal life and death
He married Amanda Sparling on October 19, 1871.[1] They had no children.[1] He died on April 23, 1886, in Seattle, Washington.[1]
^ abcdKent Dollar (ed.), Larry Whiteaker (ed.), W. Calvin Dickinson (ed.), Sister States, Enemy States: The Civil War in Kentucky and Tennessee, University Press of Kentucky, 2011 [1]
^Bobby L. Lovett, The African-American History of Nashville, Tennessee, 1780-1930: Elites and Dilemmas, University of Arkansas Press, 1999, p. 211 [2]