He attended the common schools and pursued an academic course; he moved with his father to Illinois in 1829 and then to Mount Pleasant, Iowa (then a part of Wisconsin Territory) in 1836.

Saunders studied law but never entered into practice; instead, he engaged in mercantile pursuits and banking.

[2] Saunders was one of the commissioners appointed by Congress to organize the Union Pacific Railroad Company.

They moved to Kentucky and later to Illinois, where Alvin attended school and did farm work until 1836, when the young man removed to Mount Pleasant, Iowa, which was then part of Wisconsin.

[3] At his death he left a wife and two children, Charles B., and a daughter, Mary (later Mrs. Russell Harrison of Washington, D.C.)[3][4][5] Saunders was the grandfather of William Henry Harrison III, who served several terms as Wyoming's member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1950s and 60s.