One of the first to settle in the community where the town of Alden was later to be established was Mr. S.C. Klady who bought an eighty at the east side of the future town site in 1878. Mrs. John Klady, the mother of S.C., took a timber claim on an adjacent eighty. Other settlement followed as the land in the community was gradually homesteaded or purchased.

Alden was named after the son of Mr. Nickerson, the division superintendent of the Atchinson, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railroad. The original city of Alden was established in 1884."

Although the population of Alden was always well below 500, it certainly had its day. There was a time when business was booming, and the little town of Alden supported numerous merchants. There was a hat shop run by Miss Fanny Proffitt, a telephone office, an automobile agency, a livery stable, several hardware stores, a cold storage locker, blacksmith shops, several service stations, a funeral parlor and furniture business, a drug store, a number of grocery stores, several doctors, cafes, a creamery, a public library, the Mazda theater, a newspaper, and a bank-The Alden State Bank.

In the late Thirties, as transportation was more readily available, Alden began to suffer from the commercial competition of larger nearby cities. Although business was relatively good throughout the war years, merchants soon began to shut their doors. "By the end of the first century from its founding, it became evident Alden would soon suffer the fate of other small towns and become little more than a residential center with most of the businesses forever closed."

Today Alden is home to a post office, café, Farmer's Coop, Prairie Flower Crafts, Frederick Harvesting,and the Alden State Bank. A quiet town with 175 residents, Alden has an active Booster Club and PRIDE Program, and two active churches-First Baptist Church and United Methodist Church. Even as people and businesses come and go, Alden will forever stay in the hearts of those who have had the fortune to call it home.

Our Alden Community, by Paul F. Long, Chapter 1, "The Beginning", Copyright 1988.