The Travelling Preacher
Elisha Bacon was born in Freeport, Maine, in 1799. Bacon may have known Daniel Griffin, a fellow townsperson who joined the Bowdoin Class of 1825. Bacon studied for college in Yarmouth and likely matriculated at Bowdoin as a sophomore. He was 23 when he began college, making him one of the oldest members of the class. His first year at Bowdoin he boarded at the Honorable Benjamin Orr’s along with ten of his peers. His junior year he lived in Winthrop with Seward Wyman, before boarding at the home of Mrs. Adams his senior year. Like many of his classmates, Bacon was a member of the Peucinian Society at Bowdoin. For the most part, Bacon was a well behaved student. His only infractions throughout his Bowdoin career were a couple of unexcused absences in 1823 and 1824. Bacon was a strong enough scholar to participate in a conference in the 1824 oratory exhibition, along with John Dafforne Kinsman and Cullen Sawtelle. The three spoke about “Printing and its Effect on Learning, Liberty and Religion.” However, Bacon neither graduated as a ranked member of his class nor delivered a speech at commencement. Along with his B.A, he also attended Bowdoin’s Medical School of Maine in 1825.
After Bowdoin, Bacon continued his education. He received a Master’s degree in 1828 and received private tutelage for a ministry career in Freeport-Yarmouth. He first began to preach in Hyannis, Massachusetts, and then moved to Sanford, Maine, in 1829. He continued to minister there until 1834, before moving to Eliot, Maine, in 1836. He preached in Eliot for four more years, until he was forced to give up this profession on account of his failing lungs. Bacon then moved to Centerville, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, where he ran a boarding school. While in Hyannis, Bacon met and married a woman named Emmaline Basset. The couple had four children, two of whom Bacon unfortunately outlived. Bacon died in 1863 at the age of 64.