Albert Hayden was born in Pennsylvania on March 19, 1844, to Sidney Hayden and Florilla Miller. His father was a farmer and brick maker who owned $10,000 in real estate by 1850. Hayden attended school in Athens, Pennsylvania, and began work as a railroad clerk in the 1860s. By 1870, he owned at least $5,000 in real estate and $1,000 in personal property. He married Ruth Eleanor Lester around 1877, and they had two children together: Paul, born around 1879; and Robert, born around 1881. By 1910, the couple was living in Sayre, Pennsylvania, where Hayden worked as a freight agent for the railroad industry. He died of pneumonia in Sayre on October 7, 1918.