Hamilton Gazetteer / Entities / William J. Bacon

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person

Overview

William Johnson Bacon (LL.D.) was a prominent Utica, NY politician and jurist who served as a trustee of Hamilton College across multiple decades in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. He was an alumnus of Hamilton (the 1814-15 catalog lists a “William Bacon” of Paris, NY in the junior class, consistent with him being a very early graduate). He held the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.

Relevance to Research

The yhm-arc-pub-cat-1814-15 lists “William Bacon” of Paris, NY as a junior-class student, the earliest corpus trace of the Bacon family connection to Hamilton. The catalogs for 1854-55, 1855-56, 1856-57, 1857-58, 1859-60, and 1878-79 consistently list “Hon. William Johnson Bacon, LL.D., Utica” (or variants) as a member of the Hamilton Board of Trustees, confirming his long tenure in that role. The yhm-arc-pub-cat-1878-79 also notes “Adjutant William Kirkland Bacon, Class of 1863,” a likely relative. The 1900-01 and 1903-04 catalogs contain other individuals with “Bacon” in their names (William Frederic Bacon, William Bacon Goodwin, William Bacon Crittenden, William Bacon Garritt), who are not the same person.

Notes

The 1814-15 “William Bacon” listed as a junior is plausible as the same person who later appears as an LL.D. trustee in the 1850s-70s, assuming a graduation date around 1815-16 and a long active career in law and public service into his 60s and 70s. However, this identification is not confirmed in the corpus — it is possible that “William Bacon” of Paris, NY was a relative rather than the same person. The later trustee catalog entries are unambiguous. The 1903-04 “William Bacon Garritt” is clearly distinct.