DUXBURY - They were an ordinary couple who rose to mythical prominence, thanks to a popular 19th-century poem. Now, their homestead, where their descendants have lived and worked for almost 400 years, is about to become a national historic landmark.
A passenger on the Mayflower, John Alden was one of the original settlers of Plymouth Colony. But his importance has been overshadowed by the account of his courtship with his wife, Priscilla, by poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
As the story goes, Alden was supposed to act as a go-between for his friend, Myles Standish, who had his eye on young Priscilla. When Alden arrived to ask if she would agree to see Standish, the maiden smiled and, according to Longfellow's famous poem, replied in a "tremulous" voice, "Why don't you speak for yourself, John?" The two were subsequently married and had 10 children.
"Is it a true story? Well, it's a great legend," said Alden "Rink" Ringquist, an Alden descendant and director of the Alden Kindred of America, an organization of descendants that now takes care of the house.
Earlier this month, an advisory board to the National Park Service recommended that the John Alden House Historic Site receive the designation. The decision is expected to be approved next year.
"It's kind of an accreditation of historical significance," said James W. Baker, curator of the site, who formerly oversaw Plimoth Plantation. "There are so many places here, but almost none have this."
The poem, "The Courtship of Miles Standish," painted an intimate, albeit romanticized, portrait of the couple and was a commercial hit when it was published in 1858, selling 10,000 copies in London on a single day. Suddenly, the Aldens weren't simply one of the founding families of America, but the faces of the nation's first love story.
"What really appealed to Americans was the story of the prototypical young immigrants coming to the New World; it came to represent a lot of Americans," said Thomas M. McCarthy, a history professor at the US Naval Academy and an Alden descendant who spearheaded the effort to have the site designated a national landmark.
While the National Register lists more than 80,000 historic sites of significance across the country, fewer than 2,500 have been declared national historic landmarks. To do so, the site must be important not only to a town or a family, but to the nation as a whole, said Patty Henry, a historian with the program.
"John and Priscilla became this mythical couple that represented the founding of the United States," Henry said.
But while the poem may have popularized Alden, his significance in real life was no less important. A cooper, or barrel maker, Alden was hired to sail on the Mayflower and, by some accounts, was the first man to set foot on Plymouth Rock when the Pilgrims landed in 1620.
He and Priscilla eventually settled in Duxbury, and Alden rose to hold every position of power in the colony except that of governor. The family first lived in a small cabin, but as the clan prospered, members built and added onto a new house, which Alden descendants inhabited until 1921. The house survives today, and the 2 1/2-acre site has remained in the family ever since, making it the oldest privately held house lot in the United States.
"It has been owned by Aldens since 1627," Baker said. "No one else can say that."
At the time, the forefather's eyes were "on the future, not that past," Baker said. Hence, many of the details of Alden's life are a mystery, such as his hometown in England, the date of his wife's death, or when his home was built.
"The newspapers had pages to dedicate to his eulogy, and instead of including any details about his life, they simply talked about how pious he was," Baker said with a laugh.
In the 1960s, archeologist Roland Wells Robbins excavated the site of the Aldens' original house, which shed light on how the first settlers constructed their cabins and unearthed several artifacts from the early 17th Century, including everyday items such as clothing hooks, scissors, and hinges.
"It's one of the best sites preserved in New England," said McCarthy. "Archeologists are still going back and using it when they look at English settlement in America."
However, Alden's significance is as much a result of the work of his descendants, who have spent the better part of two centuries spreading the word about their patriarch.
Longfellow was an Alden descendant, and in the early 18th century another descendant, John Adams, popularized the story of Alden setting foot on Plymouth Rock.
Later, the family ran the Alden House as a museum, and the effort to designate the site a national historic landmark was carried out by Alden descendants.
"What's really interesting is the involvement of the Alden family over the span of the last 200 years," McCarthy said.
"Each generation has connected with the Mayflower story in their own way."
