BlockBefore

Alden, Illinois

15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1932 and the latest in 1981. It stands in Alden Township. It lies in ZIP code area 60033. The Survey maps it on the Harvard quadrangle.

Alden within McHenry County

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 surveys from 15 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

In the county-history sources

6,880 words on this township

History of McHenry County, Illinois : Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Towns : Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History : Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens, Also a Condensed History of Illinois .., published 1885 names this settlement in its chapter on Alden Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

This township was not named for some time after the first settlers came in. The postoffice was called Wedgwood for a short time, when it was discovered that another postoffice by the same name was already established in the State. It was then changed to Alden by the Wards, Bordwells and Bennetts, who came from Alden, N. Y. When the township was christened, some time afterward, it received the same name.

Passage source: History of McHenry County, Illinois : Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Towns : Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History : Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens, Also a Condensed History of Illinois .., published 1885.

Nathan and Darius Disbrow were the first men who settled in this township; they came in the fall of 1836, and erected their dwellings the following spring. They settled on section 15, where the village of Alden is now situated. They came from New York State. Darius made Alden Township his home only about five years, when he moved to Milwaukee, where he died in 1849. Nathaniel is still a resident of the township, about three-quarters of a mile south of Alden Village.

Passage source: History of McHenry County, Illinois : Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Towns : Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History : Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens, Also a Condensed History of Illinois .., published 1885.

Next came into the township Miles Booty, an Englishman, from Canada. He located on what is known now as the Capron farm, east of Alden Village one and a half miles. He came in the summer of 1837, and remained in the township till about the year 1841, when he moved to Woodstock, where he engaged in business a short time, and then moved West.

Passage source: History of McHenry County, Illinois : Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Towns : Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History : Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens, Also a Condensed History of Illinois .., published 1885.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Alden Township - it names this place 29 more 29 times.

Fires near this place

6 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 6 fires within 5 miles of Alden between 2015 and 2018, burning about 40 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Debris and open burning3
Missing data/not specified/undetermined2
Equipment and vehicle use1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
7 May 2018Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources18-165
29 April 2018Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources18-152
26 April 2015Debris and open burning1.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources15-245
31 March 2015Debris and open burning4.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources15-265
18 March 2018Debris and open burning30 acresWisconsin Department of Natural Resources55
18 March 2018Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resources56

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in McHenry County

Mines and quarries near this place

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Alden: 2 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Anderson PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Cole PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Jacobs PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in McHenry County

Storms near this place

5 since 2010

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Alden in 5 storm reports between 2010 and 2026: 3 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado, 1 flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 2010Thunderstorm WindAlden$1,000Trees and power lines were blown down with trees blocking some roads.
April 2026FloodAlden-Standing water was reported on IL-173 near Oak Grove Rd in Alden.
August 2024Thunderstorm WindAlden-Power poles were downed along Thayer Road between Alden and Johnson Roads east of Harvard.
July 2015Tornado (EF0)Alden-Spotters reported a brief tornado. No damage occurred.
April 2026Thunderstorm WindAlden-no account filed

Every storm recorded in McHenry County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Hebron4.6 miles17
Big Foot Prairie5.0 miles15
Harvard5.7 miles15
Armsby (historical)5.7 miles17
Hartland6.6 miles15
Lawrence6.7 miles16
Greenwood8.2 miles17
Chemung8.4 miles16

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 403385. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.