Source information relating to birth of all 8 children of this marriage and the parentage of Eleazer Fletcher to be found in:
The Leland Magazine by Sherman Leland
"Name of Leland in America From 1653 to 1850", P. 62
Boston: Printed by Wier & White 1850 (Digitized by Google Books)BIRTH: Eleazer's place (not date) of birth (MA) also supported by daughter, Martha Fletcher (married Edward Barry) in her 1880 US Federal Census and also in the 1850 Catahoula Parish, Louisiana Census. Eleazer's 1820 place of residence is also birth place of daughter Martha.
The Ancestors and Descendants of Isaac Alden and Irene Smith, His Wife, 1599-1903, Harriet Chapin Fielding, pub. 1903 (Digitized by Google Books)
Pages 17, 18
JOSHUA ALDEN, second son of Isaac Alden, (35), was born at Ashfield, Mass., June 10, 1785, and removed with his parents to Western N. Y. in 1794.
His was one of the more restless spirits among the children of his father's family, and his venturesome nature fretted against the tame existence of the woodsman and millwright of a frontier wilderness. The irresistible voice of the sea sounding; it may be, through many generations of the past, called louder than hum-drum duty, and at the age of fifteen, availing himself of some opportune occasion--the sailing of a lumber-laden schooner or other chance inducement of the conveniently near lake--he ran away to sea and shipped "before the mast".
After several years of the hardships and limited ventures of a coasting vessel, he finally arrived at the port of New York with his seafaring ardor still unabated, and there reshipped for a cruise to the West Indies. This voyage eventually extended to England.
While walking the streets of Liverpool one day, he was seized by a "press-gang", hurried aboard a British man-o-war and compelled for a long time to do duty under a foreign flag--a grievance so persistently engaged in at that time against American seamen, as to precipitate the war that soon after ensued between the two countries. This enforced service of Joshua Alden's was mostly in Mediterranean waters, but he was also with the fleet that lay off Corunna, Spain for the purpose of re-embarking the British forces after the defeat and death of Sir John Moore.
Though oppressive and reluctant, this service offered some compensating features, for he witnessed many of the maneuvres of the world's then greatest naval forces, saw the distinguished Commander Nelson, and made acquaintance with new places, peoples and customs.
But it was hardly to be expected that a patriotic American boy, with mind doubtless fired by the renowned examples of naval valor of his own country, should regard with any degree of satisfaction this compulsory service. How to escape was the thought ever uppermost in his mind. The long awaited opportunity at last presented itelf while the fleet lay off the coast os Spain, but its successful accomplishment involved a feat possible only to one possessed of great physical strength and unusual powers of endurance, namely, the swimming of five or six miles to a Spanish ship. He was treated with great kindness by the Spaniards who picked him up, instructed in their language, and given the opportunity to reship on one of their vessels to Chili, then a Spanish colony.
Arrived at Chili, he continued to follow the fortunes of the sea for many years, and became, himself, captain of a ship, with headquarters at Valparaiso. In recounting his memories of foreign lands, he always spoke of that city as possessing the most delightful climate he had ever known.
After attaining the age of some forty years he decided to give up his roving sea life and return to the home he had left as a boy. Like a restoration from the dead was the home-coming of this son and brother. For several years he resided at Ashville, N.Y., where he married, November 15, 1827, Louisa Fletcher, who was born at Worcester, Mass., November 15, 1798, and died May 24, 1880. About the year 1835, he removed with his family to Claiborne Parish, La., where he engaged in business with his brothers. In 1846 he removed to Bristol, Ill., where he died November 2nd of that year.
In writing of her father, his only surviving child and last descendant says: "My father was not much of a talker, and I was not old enough when he died to know how to draw out the history of his life that I now wish I had. He had an intellectual turn of mind, had read a great deal and read intelligently. I can say that, as a child, I never went to him with a question to which he could not give me an intelligent reply if not a complete answer."
Children:
63. Mary Jane, born August 24, 1828; died, July 15, 1846
64. Emma Frances, born July 11, 1830.
65. Isaac Fletcher, born April 14, 1832; died July 21, 1840
66. Lucy Ann, born September 2, 1837; died July 18, 1843
67. Ellen Cornelia, born June 6, 1839; died June 6, 1840