13 Facts About Robert Alden

Edwin Hyde "Robert" Alden was an American Congregational minister.

Robert Alden was one of the many real people upon whom Laura Ingalls Wilder based a character in the Little House on the Prairie series of books and the NBC television series of the same name.

Robert Alden was the founding pastor of the First Congregational Church of Waseca, Minnesota in 1868, the first organized church in that town.

Robert Alden was a home missionary, having a church in the East, involved in planting new churches on the western frontier, such as the one in Walnut Grove which he founded in 1875.

Robert Alden held the first church service in De Smet in February 1880, in the surveyors' house where the Ingalls family was temporarily living.

Robert Alden was later accused of committing fraud while working there, and the natives he dealt with came to view him as dishonest, eventually threatening to kill him if he did not leave.

Robert Alden died in Chester, Vermont, at the age of 75.

Robert Alden was portrayed in the television series Little House on the Prairie and its movie sequels by actor Dabbs Greer.

Reverend Robert Alden is depicted as a loving, caring man who faithfully ministers the Word of God to the citizens of Walnut Grove and Hero Township, and is seen as a community leader who is looked to for his wisdom and understanding.

Robert Alden was frequently at odds with Nels' snobbish wife, Harriet, who was a social climber and looked at others, especially the Ingalls' family, with scorn and disdain, and was upset that Alden often thwarted her plans for social climbing.

Reverend Robert Alden tends to be stubborn and has an ample sense of pride.

Robert Alden enters the church, overhears Edwards, and eventually comforts him, revealing that he was a farmer who had his own struggles with alcohol after his entire family had died due to an illness.

Robert Alden continued his ministries until the series' finale, "Little House: The Last Farewell," where the townspeople make a final stand against land baron Nathan Lassiter, after he was proven to hold deed to the land where Walnut Grove was located.