Person:William Bacon (16)

BIOGRAPHY: From: Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, edited by James Grant Wilson and John Fiske. Six volumes, New York: D. Appleton and Company,1887-1889 & edited by Stanley L. Klos, 1999 Estoric.com. This was the"most quoted" biographical source for 19th and early 20th America. Foundon internet website: http://famousamericans.net/williamthompsonbacon/

"BACON, William Thompson, clergyman, born in Woodbury, Connecticut 24 Aug 1814 [date discrepancy] died in Derby, Connecticut, 18 May 1881. He was graduated at Yale 1837, delivering the valedictory poem. Then he studied at the Yale divinity school [graduating in 1840], and from 1842 to 1845 was pastor of the Congregational Church in Trumbull, Connecticut. For some time he was one of the editors of the "New Englander," and during several years editor and proprietor of the"Journal and Courier," of New Haven. He then resumed his ministerial labors, and was in charge of parishes in Kent and in Derby, Connecticut.Two volumes of poems written by him were published in Cambridge, the first in 1837 and the second in 1848."

From: History of Ancient Woodbury, Connecticut; Vol. I. Originally Published: Waterbury , Connecticut 1854. Repinted by Higginson BookCompany, Salem, Massachusetts 2003. Pages 354-355:

" Wm. T. Bacon was born at Woodbury, in Litchfield county, August 24,1814. At the age of twelve he was sent to the "Episcopal Academy," at Cheshire, to be fitted for college, but, after two years, he determined to engage in a mercantile life, and became a clerk in the city of New York. After three years, at the age of seventeen, he established himself in business in New Haven, Conn. In a short time, however, he withdrew from his mercantile connection, and devoted himself to study. He entered Yale College, in 1833, where he was regularly graduated in 1837, and was appointed by his class to deliver the valedictory poem, at the time of leaving the institution. During the following autumn, he entered the divinity school at New Haven, and, after the usual term of study, was licensed as a minister in the Congregational denomination. On leaving that institution, he was married to a daughter of Prof. Jonathan Knight, of the medical department of Yale College, and, in 1842, was settled over the Congregational church and society in the town of Trumbull, where he remained till 1845, when ill health compelled him to ask a dismission. He subsequently became one of the editors of the "New Englander," [the" New Englander" later became known as the "Yale Review"] a quarterly magazine of great ability. He was also for a few years the editor and proprietor of the New Haven daily and weekly "Journal and Courier," which he conducted with marked ability and success. He subsequently supplied the pulpit in South Britain for a time, and is now engaged in his ministerial labors in his old church at Trumbull. But he is not settledt here. He resides in the old " Bacon Homestead," in his native town, having repaired and greatly improved it.

 Soon after leaving college, Mr. Bacon published a volume of poems from a Boston press , which, in 1840, passed into a third edition, revised and enlarged.  In 1848, a new volume of poems from his pen, was published by Mr. Putnam of New York, containing two hundred and seventy-five pages.  His lighter 

poems posses much simplicity and grace. He has a fine perception of natural beauty, and his graver productions are pervaded by a current of deeply reflective, moral and religious sentiment. They have received the examination, and elicited the general commendation of severe critics. It would be pleasing to introduce some specimens of his poetry, but the limits of this work forbid."

From: History Of The Old Town Of Derby 1642 - 1880 by, S. Orcutt & A. Beardsley, published 1880. Pages 371, 676

THE TRANSCRIPT DERBY PRINTING COMPANY

Thomas M. Newson and John B. Hotchkiss of New Haven started the first newspaper in Derby December, 1846, which was called the Derby Journal. Mr. Newson was the editor, and was young, talented and energetic. For a time he published in Birmingham a lively daily paper, but it failed for want of support, the community being too limited for such an enter-prise; and Mr. Newson disposed of his paper and pushed into a larger field. He is now the editor and proprietor of a large monthly illustrated magazine in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Journal passed into other hands and for many years it was published by various editors, under the names of Valley Messenger and Derby Transcript. In 1868 William T. Bacon bought the paper and established the Derby Printing Company, from the office of which he, in connection with his son Daniel Bacon, issues the Transcript weekly; a stirring, enterprising and valuable newspaper. The department of job printing is commensurate with the wants of the locality, and is conducted with promptness, accuracy and enterprise. But what is of de-cided value in the paper is the fact that its moral influence is carefully guarded by its editors so as not only not to be offen-sive to a Christian community, but also to sustain the Christian sentiment of such a community.

WILLIAM T. BACON Was born in Woodbury August 24, 1812; graduated Yale College in 1837, at the Yale Theological Seminary in 1840, and was ordained pastor in Trumbull, Conn., in 1841. He was specially engaged in literary tastes, in addition to his pastoral work, for several years, and in broken health retired to the old Bacon homestead in Woodbury from which he came to Derby, settling first on a farm called "Hillside" [Hillside was also the name for the old Daniel Bacon Homestead in Woodbury]. Afterwards, in view of occupation for his sons he established the Derby Transcript, but his son James did not long continue to enjoy the opportunities planned by a fond parent, and his early decease has left a shadow on the household that has beclouded specially all the joys of the father. The Transcript is a stirring, enterprising paper, which takes an honorable position among the soaring, bird-like flock, which, with stretching wings and eagle eyes, hover over the Naugatuck valley. Mr. Bacon also established, in connection with Thomas Woodward, the New Haven Courier.