He was born between Hephzibah Keith and Abiezer Alger on November 11, 1782, in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

[1][2] Early in life Alger became an iron founder, training in one of his father's three foundries in the Boston area, in Easton, Massachusetts.

Initially Monkton aimed to provide iron to American consumers while the Embargo stymied foreign competition.

The company supplied the American government with large numbers of cannon balls as well as iron to join the timbers in constructing frigates.

[5] Alger also devised numerous improvements in the construction of time fuses for bomb shells and grenades.