Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/178

BACON.BACON. BACON, Ezekiel, jurist, was born in Boston, Mass., Sept. 1, 1776. He was graduated at Yale in 1794; studied law at Litchfield, Conn., and engaged in practice in Stockbridge, Mass. He was a member of the state legislature, 1806-'07, and a representative in the llth, 12th and 13th congresses. In 1813 he was appointed chief justice of the court of common pleas for western Massachusetts, and President Madison made him first comptroller of the United States treasury. In 1816 he took up his residence in Utica, N.Y., where he held many prominent public offices, including those of member of assembly, judge of the court of common pleas, and member of the state constitutional convention of 1821. In 1843 he published "Recollections of Fifty Years." Yale conferred on him the degree of A. M. in 1870. He died in Utica. N.Y., Oct. 18, 1870. BACON, Leonard, theologian, was born in Detroit, Mich., Feb. 19, 1802, son of the Rev. David Bacon, a missionary among the Ojibbewa Indians. He was graduated at Yale in 1820; at Andover, 1823; was ordained at Windsor, Sept. 28, 1824; was pastor of the First church, New Haven, 1825-'66, and pastor emeritus 1866-’81; acting professor of Systematic theology, Yale divinity school, 1866-'71; lecturer on Congregationalism at Andover, 1866-’69. and on church polity and American church history at Yale 1871-'81. He upheld the practices of the early Puritan church, and was conservative on all questions relating to the church polity, giving, besides, earnest and attentive concern to all important questions of the day. After 1823 he was a pronounced abolitionist. He held decided opinions on the question of slavery, and his views, promulgated in a series of essays, collected and published in 1846, were referred to by Abraham Lincoln as being the source of his own clear and sober convictions on the subject. He was a stanch defender of the Union, and as stanch an opposer of those abolitionists who denounced it. He gave his influence to obtain the repeal of the "omnibus" clause in the Connecticut divorce law. He was editor of the Christian Spectator, published at New Haven from 1826 to 1838. In 1843 he established The New Englander Review, afterwards The New Englander and Yale Review, and was connected with it up to the time of his death. In 1848, in conjunction with Henry C. Bowen and Drs. Storrs, Leavitt and Thompson, he founded the Independent and performed a share of the editorial duties until 1863, when he resigned his active labors, but remained a contributor. In March, 1874, he was moderator of the council of Congregational churches which met at Brooklyn, N. Y., and assisted in preparing a rebuke addressed to Plymouth church for irregularly dropping Theodore Tilton from its membership, and in 1876 filled a like position in the advisory council convened at the request of the Plymouth church to consider matters in regard to the Beecher-Tilton scandal. Dr. Bacon was fond of historical study, particularly as pertaining to the Puritans. In addition to his manifold contributions to the contemporary press, he published many pamphlets and reviews, as well as several works on religious, biographical, historical and other subjects. He received from Hamilton college, in 1842, the degree S. T. D., and from Harvard, in 1870, that of LL.D. Among his published books are: "Select Practical Writings of Richard Baxter," with a life of the author (1831, 2d ed., 1836); "A Manual for Young Church Members" (1833); "Thirteen Historical Discourses on the Completion of Two Hundred Years from the Beginning of the First Church in New Haven" (1839); "Slavery Discussed in Occasional Essays from 1833 to 1846"; "Christian Self-Culture" (1863); "Historical Discourse at Worcester, Mass., Sept. 22, 1863"; "Four Commemorative Discourses" (1866); "The Genesis of the New England Churches" New York (1874); "Sketch of the Rev. David Bacon" (1876). He died at New Haven, Conn., Dec. 24, 1881. BACON, Leonard Woolsey, clergyman, was born in New Haven, Conn., Jan. 1, 1830; son of Leonard Bacon, pastor of First church, New Haven. He studied at Yale college, where he was graduated in 1850, and then pursued a course in theology at both Andover and Yale, and medicine at Yale college, being given his M. D. degree in 1856. He preached in Congregational and Presbyterian churches in Rochester. N. Y., Stamford, Conn., Brooklyn, N. Y.. and Baltimore, Md. He then spent five years in European travel, and in 1879 became pastor of the Park Congregational church, Norwich, Conn. In 1885 he was chosen pastor of the Woodland Presbyterian church, Philadelphia, Pa., and afterwards had pastoral charge of the Ancient Independent church. Savannah, Ga., for several months, returning in December, 1887, to Norwich, Conn. His published works include: "The Life, Speeches, and Discourses of Father Hyacinthe" (1872); "Church Papers" (1876); "The Vatican Council" (1872); "A Life Worth Living: Life of Emily Bliss Gould" (1878); "Sunday