Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/177

BACON.BACON. church in that city. Not content with making his congregation at the Assumption the largest in Brooklyn, he, in 1852, bought land in a new district and built the Church of St. Mary, the Star of the Sea at the time the largest edifice in the "city of churches," where he was a successful pastor for three years. In 1855, the new diocese of Portland, Maine, was erected, and Father Bacon was consecrated its first bishop. His unremitting efforts for the prosperity of his see were crowned with success, but they were strenuous, and his health becoming seriously inpaired, he visited Europe in August, 1874. On his arrival at Brest he was carried from the ship to a hospital, and from thence back to the ship, and died in St. Vincent's hospital, New York, the day after reaching home, Nov. 4, 1874. BACON, Delia, author, was born at Tallmadge, Ohio, Feb. 2, 1811, daughter of David Bacon, missionary, and sister of Leonard Bacon, theologian. She was a teacher, and while so engaged in Boston delivered a series of lectures. She published "Tales of the Puritans" and "The Bride of Fort Edward" (1839). Her next work, and one which became well known, was "The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakespeare Unfolded," with introduction by Nathaniel Hawthorne, in which she attempted to show that Lord Bacon was one of the principal authors of the plays commonly credited to Shakespeare. She died in Hartford, Conn., Sept. 2, 1859. BACON, Edmund, lawyer, was born in Virginia, January, 1776. When very young he attended school at Augusta, Ga., and while yet a boy delivered, at the request of the citizens, an address of greeting to Washington, who was passing through the city. This youthful effort won praise from the citizens and a gift of a number of law books from Washington. After studying law in Litchfield, Conn., he was admitted to the bar, and began to practise in Savannah, Ga. He won a large and lucrative practice, and a reputation as a sound, skillful lawyer. He was employed as attorney in settling the estate of Gen. Nathaniel Greene, near Savannah. Later he removed to Edgefield, S. C, where he remained the rest of his life. He was a man of delightful personality, and was as popular in private life as in his profession. He died at Edgefield, S. C., Feb. 2, 1826. BACON, Edward Payson, merchant, was born at Reading, Steuben county, N. Y., May 16, 1834; son of Joseph F. Bacon, who removed with his family to Geneva, N. Y., in 1838. It was the boy's ambition to prepare for the ministry, but the duty of assisting his invalid father in maintaining the family determined him to accept a position as a clerk in a railroad office. In 1854 he was made chief clerk in the general freight office of the Erie railway, in New York city, and in 1855 held a similar position with the Michigan southern railroad company at Chicago. In 1856 he was appointed local freight agent of the Milwaukee and Mississippi railroad company, at Milwaukee, Wis., and continued for nine years in the employ of that company and its successor, filling the positions of general freight agent, auditor and general ticket agent, each of which departments he organized. The system of accounts, and the method of conducting the freight and ticket business, afterwards adopted by all the western roads, originated with him, and constitute the basis of the extended systems in general use in that section of the country. In 1865 Mr. Bacon engaged in the grain commission business at Milwaukee, and organized the firm of Bacon & Everingham. He was a founder of the Young Men's Christian association in Milwaukee, 1857, and its president 1879-’81; a member of the board of directors of the Milwaukee chamber of commerce, 1883-'93, its vice-president two years and president two years. He was vice-president of the national board of trade, 1884-’89; and represented the Milwaukee chamber of commerce before congressional committees to oppose the free coinage of silver, and the passage of the "anti option" bill. BACON, Edwin Munroe, editor, was born in Providence, R.I., Oct. 20, 1844; son of the Rev. Henry and Ann Eliza (Munroe) Bacon; and of early New England ancestry; on the paternal side from Cape Cod stock, and on the maternal, from the Munroe family of Lexington, represented in the Revolution. He was educated in Philadelphia and Boston private schools and at Foxboro academy He was a reporter on the Boston Advertiser, 1863-’64; editor of the Illustrated Chicago News. 1864-'68; with the New York Times, 1868-’72; member of the staff of the Boston Advertiser, 1872-'73; editor-in-chief of the Boston Globe, 1873-’78; managing editor of the Boston Advertiser, 1878-'84; editor-in-chief of the Advertiser, 1884-’86; editor-in-chief of the Boston Post, 1886-'91, and editor of Time and the Hour, Boston, Mass., 1897-1900. He received the honorary degree of A.M. from Dartmouth in 1880. He edited guide books, and published "Boston Illustrated"; "Bacon's Dictionary of Boston" (1883); "Walks and Rides in the Country Round About Boston" (1897); and "Historic Pilgrimage in New England" (1898).