Augustus E. Alden
{{Short description|American politician}}
Augustus E. Alden (1837–1886) was an American Radical Republican politician. He served as the mayor of Nashville, Tennessee, from 1867 to 1868.
Early life
He was born in Augusta, Maine, in 1837.{{Cite web |url=http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nashvillearchives/mayors.html |title=Friends of Metropolitan Archives of Nashville and Davidson County, TN |access-date=2013-03-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160313015642/http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nashvillearchives/mayors.html |archive-date=2016-03-13 |url-status=dead }} His father was Col. Darius Alden and his mother, Caroline Nickerson.
Career
During the American Civil War of 1861-1865, Alden served as a unionist from Minnesota and Maine.Kent 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 [https://books.google.com/books?id=NgiFpfg8lw0C&pg=PT296]Bobby L. Lovett, The African-American History of Nashville, Tennessee, 1780-1930: Elites and Dilemmas, University of Arkansas Press, 1999, p. 211 [https://books.google.com/books?id=kp1RUQ5QefIC&pg=PA211]
During William Gannaway Brownlow's campaign for Governor of Tennessee in 1865, he acted as a registrar for Davidson County. Alden served as the mayor of Nashville from 1867 to 1868.[http://www.library.nashville.org/research/res_nash_history_mayors.asp Nashville Public Library: Mayors of Nashville, Tennessee] Historians have argued Governor Brownlow staged Alden's Nashville Mayoral election of 1867.Don H. Doyle, New Men, New Cities, New South: Atlanta, Nashville, Charleston, Mobile, 1860-1910, UNC Press Books, 1990, p. 31 [https://books.google.com/books?id=mXkgB--FujIC&pg=PA31] Others have argued he won the election thanks to African-American voters. 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.
Personal life and death
He married Amanda Sparling on October 19, 1871. They had no children. He died on April 23, 1886, in Seattle, Washington.
References
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{{succession box | before = William Matt Brown | title = Mayor of Nashville, Tennessee | years = 1867–1868 | after = John Meredith Bass}}
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{{Mayors of Nashville}}
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Category:Mayors of Nashville, Tennessee