The Doctor is a native of Ohio, his birth having occurred in Medina on the 7th of May, 1841. When nine years old he came with his parents to Michigan, who located in Kay, Macomb county, where he was reared. His father, Royal Bacon, was born in St. Lawrence county, New York, in 1815, and by trade was a carder and redresser of cloth. He married Miss Sarah Wheelock, daughter of Captain Wheelock, who was a soldier in the war of 1812. The Wheelocks are a family of physicians, and Dr. Kent K. Wheelock, an eminent professor of Fort Wayne, Indiana, is a cousin of our subject. The parents of the Doctor had a family of five children, of whom he is the eldest. The others are Elliott, who died in the army; Rosanna, who is the wife of Edward Merrill and resides in West Pullman, Illinois; Olive, wife of Fremont Haines, of Utica, Michigan; and John C., who makes his home in Bay City.
Under the parental roof Dr. Bacon spent the days of his boyhood and youth, and in the schools of his native town acquired his literary education. After the breaking out of the Civil war, when he was twenty-one years of age, he offered his services to the Government, enlisting in the Union army as a member of Company F, Twenty-second Regiment of Michigan Volunteers at Macomb, this State. The company was commanded by Captain Ashley, the regiment by Colonel Moses Wisner. Our subject was mustered in at Pontiac, and the command was ordered to Covington, Kentucky, to aide in preventing General Bragg from getting far enough north to “water his horse in the Ohio river,” as he boasted he would do, it being the Rebel leader’s plan to advance upon Ohio and capture Cincinnati. This was prevented, however, by the troops sent to Covington. Later the command to which the Doctor was attached was ordered through Kentucky to Nashville, Tennessee, where they remained during the winter of 1862-3. The following spring they went to Chattanooga and participated in the hard-fought battle of Chickamauga, where the Twenty-second Michigan lost all their men, in killed or captured, save about one hundred. When Company F responded to roll call after the battle, only ten members responded to their names! The Doctor was also in the Atlanta campaign, and when that city was captured returned to Chattanooga with “Pap” Thomas. He was honorably discharged there on the 26th of June, 1865. He was always found at his post of duty, faithfully defending the old flag and the cause it represented, and though he participated in a number of very hotly contested battles he received no wound, nor was he ever captured.
Upon his return from the war Dr. Bacon took up the study of medicine under Dr. Harris and finished his professional training in the Philadelphia Medical College. He opened his first office in Disco, Michigan, and on the 6th of January, 1882, came to Sault de Ste. Marie. Here he opened an office in the drug store of Charles Endreson on Water street, and some years afterward, on acquiring an interest in the drug business of James Wirt & Company, he moved his office to the National Bank building, thence to his present location. He is now the oldest physician in years of continuous practice in this city, and from the public he receives a most liberal and well-deserved patronage. He has a most enviable reputation for skill and ability and keeps fully abreast with the times on everything connected with his chosen life-work.
On the 17th of March, 1868, Dr. Bacon was united in marriage, in Disco, Michigan, with Miss Josephine A. Moe, daughter of William Moe. They have but one child, a son, William R., who in March, 1893, married Miss Amanda King. The family is one of prominence in this community, having many friends who hold them in high regard.
The Doctor is a Royal Arch Mason, a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and one of the grand officers in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, serving as District Deputy Grand Master of this jurisdiction. In politics he is an inflexible and adherent of the principles of Republicanism, unwavering in support of his party. He was a member of the first City Council of Sault de Ste. Marie and aided in putting the machinery of the city government in motion and in laying the foundation for all the good work that has since been done by succeeding councils. For many years he has served as Coroner of Chippewa county and is the present incumbent.
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