BACON, LEONARD (1802-1881), American Congrega tional preacher and writer, was born at Detroit, Mich., on Feb. 19, 1802, the son of David Bacon missionary among the Indians in Michigan and founder of the town of Tallmadge, O. The son graduated at Yale in 1820 and at the Andover Theological seminary in 1823, and from 1825 until his death on Dec. 24, 1881, was minister in the First Church (Congregational) in New Haven, although he gave up the active pastorate in 1866. He was, from 1826 to 1838, an editor of the Christian Spectator; was one of the founders of the New Englander (later the Yale Review), and with Dr. R. S. Storrs, H. C. Bowen and others, of the Independent (1848), of which he was an editor until 1863 ; and was acting professor of didactic theology in the theological department of Yale university from 1866 to 1871, and lecturer on church polity and American church history from 1871 until his death. Because of his prominence he was sometimes popularly referred to as "the Congregational pope of New England." An advocate of liberal orthodoxy himself, in all the heated theological controversies of the day he used his influence to bring about har mony, and in the councils of the Congregational churches he man ifested great ability both as a debater and as a parliamentarian. In all matters concerning the welfare of his community or the nation, moreover, he took a deep and constant interest, and was particularly identified with the temperance and anti-slavery move ments, in which, as in most other controversies, he took a moder ate course. His Slavery Discussed in Occasional Essays from to 1846 (1846) exercised considerable influence upon Abraham Lincoln. Bacon was early attracted to the study of the ecclesias tical history of New England and was frequently called upon to deliver commemorative addresses, such as are contained in his Thirteen Historical Discourses (1839). The most important of his historical works, however, is his Genesis of the New England Churches (1874). He published A Manual for Young Church Members (1833) ; edited, with a biography, the Select Practical Writings of Richard Baxter (1831) ; and was the author of a number of hymns.
Leonard Bacon's sister, DELIA BACON (1811-1859), born in Tallmadge, 0., on Feb. 2, 1811, was a teacher in schools in Con necticut, New Jersey and New York, and then, until about 1852, conducted in various eastern cities classes for women in history and literature. She wrote Tales of the Puritans (1831), The Bride of Fort Edward (1839), and The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakespeare Unfolded (1857). The latter work was intended to prove that the plays attributed to Shakespeare were written by a coterie of men, including Francis Bacon, Sir Walter Raleigh and Edmund Spenser, for the purpose of inculcating a philosophic system, for which they felt that they themselves could not afford to assume the responsibility. Her devotion to this one idea, as Hawthorne says, "had thrown her off her balance," and while she was in England she lost her mind entirely. She died in Hartford, Conn., on Sept. 2, 1859.