Ebenezer Alden

Ebenezer Alden was born on {{date|17 March 1788|MDY}} in Randolph, Massachusetts. He was descended through both father (Dr. Ebenezer Alden) and mother (Sarah Bass) directly from John Alden of the Mayflower.{{Cite web|title=Memorial, Ebenezer Alden, M.D|url=https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-101200048-bk|access-date=2022-01-24|website=Digital Collections - National Library of Medicine}}

He graduated from Harvard College in 1808 and received his M. B. from Dartmouth Medical School in 1811 and M. D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1812, during his pupilage coming under the instruction of Nathan Smith, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Smith Barton, and Casper Wistar.

Following graduation, he was employed as a surgeon in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812, and was stationed in Boston.{{Cite journal|last=De Forest|first=Henry Pelouze|date=1908|title=Benjamin Rush's Directions for preserving the health of soldiers, with a note upon Surgeon Ebenezer Alden|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ACkCAAAAYAAJ|journal=Military Surgeon|volume=23|issue=3|pages=182–195}}

He returned to Randolph to practice medicine. In 1818 he married Anne Kimball, daughter of Capt. Edmund Kimball, of Newburyport; they had six children.

From 1837 to near the close of life he was a trustee of Phillips Academy and Andover Theological Seminary. He was also a trustee of Amherst College and was one of the original trustees of Thayer Academy of Braintree. He was elected as one of nine Counsellors for the newly-formed American Statistical Association in 1839.{{Cite journal|last=Fitzpatrick|first=Paul J.|date=December 1957|title=Statistical Societies in the United States in the Nineteenth Century|url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00031305.1957.10481745|journal=The American Statistician|language=en|volume=11|issue=5|pages=13–21|doi=10.1080/00031305.1957.10481745|issn=0003-1305|url-access=subscription}} He was a dedicated member of the First Congregational Church, Randolph.

Alden was a bibliophile and built up a notable private library of rare books and pamphlets, especially those pertaining to the history of American medicine and the ecclesiastical and civil history of New England. Some of his books eventually were donated to the Medical Society of the County of Kings, Brooklyn, NY, and to Cornell University Library.{{Cite journal|title=Lectures and Meetings|journal = Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences|url=https://academic.oup.com/jhmas/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/jhmas/XXVI.3.308-b|access-date=2022-01-24|series=Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Volume XXVI, Issue 3, July 1971|year = 1971| volume=XXVI |issue = 3| pages=308–b–310 |doi=10.1093/jhmas/xxvi.3.308-b|url-access=subscription}} He had a strong love for antiquarian and genealogical pursuits, joining the New England Historic Genealogical Society in 1846, the year after its organization. He was a lecturer on temperance, and was President of the Massachusetts Temperance Union.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C_QBAAAAYAAJ&dq=ebenezer+alden++massachusetts+temperance+society&pg=PA202|title=The Massachusetts Register and United States Calendar for the Year of Our Lord ...|date=1849|publisher=Richardson, Lord & Holbrook, and James Loring|pages=202|language=en}} He also was a singer, and even at the age of eighty-one, he joined the chorus of the National Peace Jubilee in Boston, in 1869.

He was totally blind for the last five or six years of his life. Alden died at his home in Randolph, on January 26, 1881, aged ninety-three.

Some of his writings have been digitized, including:{{cite BDA1906 |wstitle= Alden, Ebenezer |volume= 1 |page= 69 |short=1}}

• [http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101158355 The Early History of the Medical Profession in the County of Norfolk], Boston, 1853
• [https://books.google.com/books/download/Memoir_of_Bartholemew_Brown.pdf?id=sZwWAAAAYAAJ&output=pdf Memoir of Bartholomew Brown, Esquire, Randolph], 1862
• [http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101158358 Medical uses of alcohol], 1870?
• Memorial of the Descendants of the Hon. John Alden, 1867
• [http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/2541026R An address, delivered in Hanover, N.H., before the Dartmouth Medical Society, on their first anniversary, Dec. 28th, 1819]
• [https://www.massmed.org/About/MMS-Leadership/History/Historical-Sketch-of-the-Origin-and-Progress-of-the-Massachusetts-Medical-Society/ Historical Sketch of the Origin and Progress of the Massachusetts Medical Society], 1839.

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{{Cite AMB1920|wstitle= Alden, Ebenezer |pages= 10-11 |last= Burrage |first= W.L. |author-link= |year=|short=1}}

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Category:Created via preloaddraft

Category:1788 births

Category:1881 deaths

Category:19th-century American physicians

Category:American bibliophiles

Category:Geisel School of Medicine alumni

Category:American genealogists

Category:Harvard College alumni

Category:American medical historians

Category:People from Randolph, Massachusetts

Category:Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania alumni

Category:Physicians from Massachusetts