Honoring Alden's Veterans: The Patriots of Sandridge Road

With Veterans Day approaching on Wednesday, Nov. 11, the historic Alden Town Cemetery on Sandridge Road stands as a quiet record of local service.

For generations, the Alden Town Cemetery on Sandridge Road has been the resting place of some of the town's earliest families, and a pair of our nation's earliest veterans. William Snow, who served three times in the Massachusetts Militia, including at the siege of Boston, died in 1834, and a Sons of the American Revolution marker now stands beside his weathered stone. Oliver Standart, a private in the Continental Army, died in 1841. A Daughters of the American Revolution marker placed in 2017 by the Katherine Pratt Horton Buffalo Chapter also honors a patriot buried there.

Those two are not alone. Nine Revolutionary War veterans are buried in Alden, two in the Town Cemetery on Sandridge Road and seven in Alden Evergreen Cemetery on Broadway. This year Alden Evergreen is one of 26 stops on the Erie County Historical Commission's WNY Tombstone Trail 250, which runs through Veterans Day.

Just down the road, St. John the Baptist Cemetery at 2021 Sandridge Road holds a more recent chapter. The Catholic cemetery, started in 1854, is the resting place of 148 veterans listed in veterans' records, from World War II through the Persian Gulf, with burials as recent as 2021.

The Alden Historical Society keeps records of the town's veterans, and small American flags stand at the patriots' graves.

Whether they marched with the Massachusetts Militia or served in the Persian Gulf, these veterans are woven into Alden's history. Their service and sacrifice should never be forgotten.

Residents seeking cemetery registry information, or families hoping to add a loved one's military records to the town collection, have a few places to turn. The best first call is Karen Muchow, the Town and Village of Alden historian, at AldenHistorian1@gmail.com or 716-937-6400.

The Alden Historical Society, at 13213 Broadway, can be reached at 716-937-3700 or AldenHistSoc@gmail.com, and Membership Secretary Lynda Tucker can be reached at 716-937-7924. The society's Heritage Center is open the first and third Saturdays of the month, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., April through December.

American Legion Post 1377, at 13143 Broadway, can be reached at 716-937-3110. Families should ask for the post commander or adjutant.