- CHARLES ALFRED BACON, M.A., occupies the position of Professor
of the French Language
- and Literature in Beloit College, and also serves as librarian
of that institution. He is one of the energetic men in the Faculty,
and holds a prominent place in the public esteem as thoroughly
versed in his special field, and at the same time broadly informed,
and an inspiring presence wherever encountered. He comes of a
scholarly line, and is himself devoted to the interests of true
learning, with an eye of kindly regard for a studious youth,
and a dispotion to help every budding genius unfold its wings.
- Prof. BACON was born in Brattleboro, Vt., in 1860, and is
a son of Rev. William F. and Mary
- W. (BEAL) BACON, both natives of Massachusetts. Their children
are as follows: Prof. Charles A.; Prof. George, vice-principal
of the Beloit Academy; Rev. William A., a Congregational minister
at Shelburne Falls, Mass.; Theodore H., a teacher in Danbury,
Conn.; Arthur A., an instructor in physics in Dartmouth College;
and Julia A., at Medford, Mass. The father was a teacher when
a young man, and in later life became a clergyman. He is living
at Medford, Mass., at the present time. His father, Isaac P.
BACON, was a native of Bedford, Mass., born in a home that had
been the birthplace of eight generations of the family. The ancestors
of the BACON family came from the North of Ireland, and located
at Bedford in 1642. Michael BACON was the founder of the family
in this country. Isaac P. BACON had two children, a son and a
daughter. He was a carriage builder, and a prominent character
in his day, and for many years was chairman of the board of selectmen,
but declined to go to the Legislature. He died in Bedford.
- Capt. George BEAL, the father of Mary W., was born in Hingham,
Mass., of English descent, and
- it is recorded of him that he brought the first steam vessel
into Boston harbor; it was the old steamboat "Lincoln,"
and he had superintended its construction in Philadelphia. He
spent the greater portion of his adult life on the water, and
was well known in Boston. He reached the age of seventy-eight.
He was a veteran of the war of 1812. Capt. BEAL was the father
of nine children.
- Prof. Charles A. BACON spent his youth and earlier manhood
in Massachusetts, graduating from
- Dartmouth College in 1883. He immediately began a career
as a teacher which has been singularly successful. His first
engagement was at the Classical Academy at Hallowell, Maine,
where he taught one year. The young teacher passed from there
to the high school at Wakefield, Mass., where he filled a year's
engagement. In 1885 he came to Beloit to take the chair of astronomy
in Beloit College, and was engaged in that department until a
recent date. In 1899 he became the occupant of the chair noted
above, a position for which he is well fitted by wide study and
reading, and by special work done in Europe in 1888 and 1890.
In 1888 the college library was put into his charge and he has
displayed much zeal in its management to accomplish the best
results. He is regarded as one of the pillars of Beloit College.
- Prof. BACON and Mrs. Alice G. SHELDON were united in marriage
July 5, 1893, and they have
- a pleasant home at No. 641 Church street. Mrs. BACON was
the widow of Preston SHELDON, M.D., and the daughter of Rev.
Henry M. and Frances (FOSTER) GROUT, of Concord, Mass. She had
two children by her former marriage, Paul G. and Rex. The Professor
and his talented wife are members of the Congregational Church.
He is a Republican in politics.
-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin"
(c) 1901, pp. 216-217; lithograph from same book.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
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