Alward attended the Nunda Academy, afterward known as the Presbyterian Session House, located on Church Street and subsequently he was educated in schools elsewhere. In 1853 he located in Auburn where he engaged in the book trade in partnership with James Seymore, Jr., until 1857, when he sold out and went abroad for the purpose of travel and study, visiting nearly all of the interesting places in Europe, including a trip through the Holy Land; six months of the time he was Secretary of Legation at Constantinople, returning home at the close of the Buchanan administration. During the Civil War he was appointed Assistant secretary of Legation at the Court of St. James, London under Charles Francis Adams, Minister to England, where he remained until 1868, when he returned and engaged in the insurance business in Auburn, where he continued to reside until his death. With his wife Emily Wythe Babcock from Buffalo, NY they had three children: Mary, Henry Stuart, Charles Francis. Emily Babcock and Alward were married in London in October 1865.