Maurice Le Roy Alden, one of the leading members of the Wyandotte county bar, was born in Kansas City, Kan., Oct. 10, 1873, and, except his university period, has spent his whole life there. He is a direct lineal descendant in the ninth generation of John and Priscilla Alden, whose romance lives in literature in Longfellow's poem, "The Courtship of Miles Standish," and it may be interesting to note that Longfellow himself, and also the poet, William Cullen Bryant, were descendants of John and Priscilla Alden. Maurice Alden is the son of Judge Henry Le Roy Alden, also a lawyer by profession, born in Greenwich, Mass., May 8, 1847, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work.

Mr. Alden received his grammar and high school education in Kansas City, Kan., and was graduated in the high school at the age of seventeen. In the fall of 1891 he entered the University of Kansas where he graduated as a Bachelor of Arts with the class of 1895. He then entered the law department of Columbian University of Washington, D. C., now known as George Washington University, where he graduated with the degree of Doctor of Laws in 1897. While a law student in Columbian University, he also served as the private secretary of Congressman O. L. Miller, of the Second Kansas Congressional district and for one year he was assistant secretary to United States Senator Lucien Baker, of Kansas. In 1898 he returned home and at once entered upon the practice of his profession and has since devoted his whole time to it. He is a member of the Wyandotte County Bar Association, the Kansas State Bar Association, and the Jackson County (Mo.) Bar Association. In politics he is a Republican and his religious views are expressed by membership in the First Congregational Church of Kansas City, Kan. He is a member of the University Club of Kansas City, Mo., of the Phi Kappa Psi college fraternity and of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. For four years he held the office of public administrator of Kansas City, Kan.

Mr. Alden was married Oct. 10, 1901, to Miss Edna Wella Warkentin, of Newton, Kan., the daughter of the late Bernhard Warkentin, a prominent miller of that city. Mr. and Mrs. Alden have two sons—John Alden, born Oct. 12, 1903, and Bernard W. Alden, born July 7, 1908.