Alden Nash: Man of Mystery

Last March, we had a great idea. We would start writing a series of articles on local historic figures. However, we didn’t want to write about Daniel Marsac or Madame LaFromboise, about whom so much is already recorded. Instead, we wanted to explore the life of a lesser known person.

We settled on Alden Nash.

At the time, plans for a center lane on Alden Nash Ave. near the Lowell Township Hall had just been announced. Feedback we received on the plans included comments about how confusing it is to have so many disconnected stretches of Alden Nash Ave. in Lowell and questions about why were there so many sections with the same name.

Why are there so many sections of road named Alden Nash? I thought we’d find out.

Turns out, the answer to that question is almost as mysterious as the man himself.

Tracking Down Mr. Nash

Finding information on Alden Nash wouldn’t be as easy as doing a simple internet search. I already knew that. Google might think it knows all, but if you ask it about Alden Nash, it gives you pages and pages of results for businesses and homes located on Alden Nash Ave.

Searching for the history of Alden Nash was more promising and provided a link to a Bowne Township Historical Commission page chronicling Nash’s journey to Michigan. This was good information, but certainly there must be more.

An email to the Lowell Area Historical Museum sent us back to Bowne Township Historical Commission website but provided nothing more. An afternoon spent at the Grand Rapids Public Library archive offered an interesting peek into the history of Lowell but no mention of Alden Nash.

Surely, the Kent County Road Commission would know why they named the road after him, right? Wrong. They didn’t have any records but said roads were often named after township officials or farmers who owned significant frontage along the road named in their honor.

The only problem is that there is no record of Nash holding local office, and his relatively small parcel of land wasn’t even on what is now known as Alden Nash Ave. Instead, he lived on what is now 92nd Street. Adding to the mystery is that according to Road Commission records, Alden Nash Ave. was known as Cascade Road in 1912. That means the name change had to occur later than that, some 40 years after Nash died.

Finally, I sent an email to the Bowne Township Historical Society – something I should have done 10 months earlier – and discovered a living link to the elusive man. Sally Johnson, the society’s president, is married to the great great grandson of Alden Nash. At 87 years old, Dick Johnson may be, to the best of his knowledge, one of the last direct descendants of Alden Nash living in the Bowne Township area. His children and grandchildren live in Norton Shores and Ann Arbor.

I sat down with Dick and Sally Johnson as well as the Bowne Township Historian Janet VanWyck to fill in whatever details we could about the elusive Alden Nash.

What We Know About Alden Nash

We can say with certainty that Alden Nash lived in Ohio prior to coming to Michigan. He built the Nash Hotel – still in operation as the Welshfield Inn – which served as a stop on the Underground Railroad. Daniel Lorenzo Nash, Alden’s son, recalled discovering this fact at age seven when a wagon arrived at the hotel hiding a couple with their two young children.

In Daniel’s written account of the event, he remembers his father saying, “They are slaves and are on their way, by the aid of white friends, to reach a land of freedom, which is Canada.”

For reasons that are unclear, Nash sold his property and loaded his family into a covered wagon in 1852. A docent at the Lowell Historical Museum told me she heard he left because he may have been under pressure because of his role in the Underground Railroad, but I couldn’t find anything to substantiate that claim.

What is known is that the family traveled north to a 160-acre wooded parcel in Bowne Township. According to Daniel Nash’s autobiography, friends and relatives of the Nash family had moved to the area a year prior, perhaps serving as the family’s reason for leaving Ohio.

Nash gave up the wagon, buggy and horses for the farm, and the family lived in a log cabin. There, they cut timber and hunted to sustain themselves. Altogether, Nash and his wife Olive had nine children according to Bowne Township Museum records.

At some point after 1863, Nash again sold his property and moved to Muskegon. There he died ,in 1871 at age 60 of pneumonia. He was brought back to Bowne Township where he is buried alongside his wife Olive, his son James and James’s wife Helen. Although it says Col. Alden Nash on his cemetery marker, Sally Johnson says they aren’t aware that he ever served in the military.

Prior to his death, Alden Nash returned to Troy, Ohio at least once to visit relatives there. He sent a letter from there in 1861 to Daniel upon his son’s enlistment in the military. The Civil War had just begun, and Nash sent word of his love and concern his son’s well-being. Within the two-page letter, he notes, “Let me council [sic] you then as a father that loves you, to keep clean hands and pure heart in these things.” He goes on to advise against profanity, drinking and other vices.

How Alden Nash Ave. Got Its Name

To go back to our main mystery: how did more than 16 miles of road get named for a man who, while reportedly of good character, spent relatively little time living in the area?

My best guess lies with Henry Johnson. Henry Johnson is Nash’s grandson – the result of the union of James Chandler Johnson and Eleanor Nash. Johnson was a long-time member of the Kent County Road Commission. In fact, according to the Bowne Township Historical Museum, he had the longest service record of any Road Commission member. He is credited as the father of the Kent County Park System, and Johnson Park is named in his honor.

Dick Johnson – Henry’s grandson – says his tenure on the Road Commission started in 1925. If so, that might place him on the commission at the time Cascade Road in Bowne Township was renamed. Henry Johnson not only was related to Alden Nash, but he lived in Bowne Township on the road that would become Alden Nash Ave.

While there is no proof, my suspicion is that Henry Johnson is responsible for the road being named Alden Nash Ave. It’s not clear why two other sections of road west and north of the City of Lowell are also named Alden Nash but maybe at one time, the entire stretch was connected in some way.

After a year of research and study, the story of Alden Nash still feels incomplete. However, I’ll leave you with this note recorded at the top of the letter Alden sent to his son Daniel after his enlistment. It’s unknown who wrote this notation, but it appears to have been written around 1926.

A great many people here are familiar with the sterling character of the Nash pioneers and their descendants, and to those who may not be fortunate enough to know these people, the letter will carry to them a message of helpfulness and earnest advice that is only too often lacking with many of the present day parents.

Read the entire letter from Alden Nash to Daniel:

Alden Nash Letter to Daniel