William C. Bacon Biography



As published in
"The City of Kenosha and Kenosha County Wisconsin: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement"
by Frank H. Lyman Vol. 2, The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, 1916.




An attractive farm on section 6, Bristol township, is the home property of William C. Bacon and in its cultivation and develpment he secured a substantial income, which is the merited reward of his earnest labor. He was born in Bristol, August 1, 1855, his parents being Hiram and Harriet (Coburn) Bacon. The father was born in New Hampshire, November 7, 1823, and the mother in Vermont, October 27, 1831. They were married in the latter state, September 19, 1854. In 1855 they arrived in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, reaching their destination in the month of March. The father purchased one hundred acres of land in Bristol township but sold that property the following year and for two years rented the Otis farm. He next purchased eighty acres in Bristol township, upon which he carried on general agricultural pursuits for three or four years. His next investment made him the owner of two hundred and twenty acres, which he developed and improved up to the time of his death, which occurred in 1872. His widow survived him for about a quarter of a century, her death occurring in 1896. In their family were but two children: William C., and Mary, who is now the widow of Dr. L. D. Sheerer and has two children, Myra E. and Luther Baron. In his political views Hiram Bacon was a stalwart republican and did everything in his power to promote the growth and insure the success of his party. He served as supervisor and was chairman of the board for one year, while for twelve years he occupied the position of clerk of the school district., the cause of education finding in him a stalwart champion. He attended the Methodist Episcopal church, to which his wife belonged.

William C. Bacon was a pupil in the district schools to the age of seventeen years, when he entered the high school at Kenosha, spending three years in study there. At the end of that time he assumed the management of the old home farm, which he continued to cultivate and improve until 1910, when he rented the property to his son-in-law and has since lived largely retired although still giving supervision to the further development of the place. He is president and director of the Bristol Mutual Fire Insurance Company and a director of the Woodworth Creamery Association.

On the 20th of March, 1879, Mr. Bacon was united in marriage to Miss Margaret Sheen, a daughter of James Sheen of Paris township. The death of Mrs. Bacon occurred on the 23d of February, 1916, and her grave was made in the cemetery on the Bristol plank road. She left a daughter, Mary Elizabeth, who is now the wife of Bryant S. Benson, and has two children, Bryand Bacon and William George. Mrs. Bacon had many warm friends in the community, so that her death was the occasion of deep regret, not only to her immediate family, but to many with whom she came in contact.

Mr. Bacon is an exemplary respresentative of the Masonic fraternity, belonging to lodge No. 145, in which he has held every office save that of master. He is also identified with the Eastern Star, the Mystic Workers, the Woodmen and the Royal Neighbors, but the dominant force in shaping his life has been his religious faith. He is a Methodist. His political allegiance is given to the republican party on many occasions, yet he does not hold himself bound by party ties, and at local elections votes, as he believes, for the best man. His fellow townsmen, appreciative of this worth and ability, have frequently called him to public office. For eleven years altogether he has served as supervisor, and for two terms was chairman of the board. He served for twenty-one years as a director of the school board, doing everything in his power to further the case of public edutation, believing the public schools to be the bulwark of the nation. His influence is always on the side of right, truth, reform and progress, and his work along those lines has been directly beneficial and resultant.

Typed by: Michelle Laycock