Noah Alden

Noah Alden. . , Noah Alden was the second pastor of the Baptist Church in Bellingham. Born May 31, 1725 in Middleborough, Massachusetts, Noah was the youngest of twelve children. He was the son of John and Hannah White Alden and the great grandson of John and Priscilla Alden, Pilgrims of Plymouth. , Noah was converted at the age of sixteen during the great awakening. In 1744, he married Joanna Vaughn and four years later the young couple moved to Stafford, Connecticut through study, Alden was convinced of Baptist principles, and in July of 1754, he was baptized into the membership of the Baptist Church in Tolland by the celebrated Shubal Stearns. Alden made publick his call to the ministry and assumed the care of the church when Stearns and company went south. Stearns instructed those that remained to ordain Alden. This they did June 5, 1755. The church in Tolland disbanded ten years later and Alden was asked to preach to the believers in Bellingham. He was installed as pastor here November 12, 1766. , Alden was a laborious itinerant, a distinguished statesman and for thirty-one years the faithful pastor of the Baptist Church in Bellingham. In 1767, the church became one of four constituent members of the Warren Association and Alden was chosen the first moderator. As part of the association, he also served on the grievance committee, a group which rendered aid to the persecuted baptists of New England , In 1779, Alden represented Bellingham as a member of the Massachusetts convention to help frame a state constitution and in 1788. He was a member of the convention to ratify the constitution of the United States. The service which Alden rendered as a statesman helped to build a new country, while the service he rendered to the Redeemer helped to build the Kingdom of God. , Alden assisted in ordaining Elnathan Wight, first pastor of this church. He also ordained Ebenezer Smith, sufferer for the Lord in Ashfield. In 1763 his itinerant preaching in Woodstock, Connecticut, was blessed to the conversion of Biel Ledoyt, who for many years was a useful pastor and leader among the baptists. , Aaron Leland planted many churches in Vermont while also serving for a time as lieutenant governor of that state. He was licensed to preach the gospel by the Bellingham Baptist Church in 1786. His father-in-law and pastor, Noah Alden, ordained him to the ministry. , In June of 1774, Alden baptized John Leland, that great vindicator of the civil and religious rights of man. It was Leland, the baptist pastor, who later helped secure the First Amendment to the Constitution. , Baptist historian, William Cathcart, records that for many years, Alden was "one of our most distinguished and honored ministers, and his name deserves to be held in grateful remembrance.” , Alden and his wife had ten children. He died May 5, 1797 and is buried in the Center Cemetery of Bellingham , Marker placed by the Baptist History Preservation Society May 5, 2009