William J. Bacon

William Johnson Bacon, was an American politician and a U.S. Representative from New York.

Early life

Bacon was born on February 18, 1803, in Williamstown, Massachusetts to Abigail and Ezekiel Bacon. He was the grandson of John Bacon. He moved with his family to Utica, New York, in 1815. He graduated from Hamilton College in 1822. Then he studied law at Litchfield Law School and graduated in 1824. Bacon studied for a year in the law office of Joseph and Charles P. Kirkland. He was admitted to the bar in 1824, and commenced practice in Utica.

Bacon was appointed city attorney of Utica in 1837, and was a member of the New York State Assembly in 1850. He was elected a trustee of Hamilton College in 1851. He was a justice of the New York Supreme Court from 1854 to 1870, and was ex officio a judge of the New York Court of Appeals in 1860 and 1868.
Elected as a Republican to the 45th United States Congress, Bacon served as U.S. Representative for the twenty-third district of New York from March 4, 1877 to March 3, 1879. Afterwards he resumed the practice of law.

Bacon married Eliza Kirkland on October 23, 1828 and subsequent to her death in 1872, he was married to Susan Sloan Gillette in 1874.
Bacon died in Utica, Oneida County, New York, on July 3, 1889. He is interred at Forest Hill Cemetery in Utica.