Notes for: Henry Stevens BACON

It was assumed that Henry S Bacon died ca 1850 as in his widow Mercy's obituary it stated that they were married in 1830 (when in fact it was 1832) and that she was widowed 18 years later. However obituaries are frequently the source of errors like this and it is clear that the family who provided the information assumed that Henry had died around 1850.

Lynn Betlock, of Cambridge, MA., married to Samuel Grant Kendall Emison, a direct descendant of this family found Henry. In 1850 he was living with his youngest daughter Julia Ester Bacon at the residence of his brother Newell A Bacon in Dana, MA. His daughter Fidelia was living with Jonas Warren and family in Enfield, MA. Mercy and the other living children cannot be found in any MA census records for that year, so perhaps they had already moved to Illinois.

Henry S Bacon filed for divorce in October 1855 in Worcester, MA. Mercy S Bacon was subpoenaed but did not appear, stating, via her lawyer, that she demanded support from him. In his claim, he said that she had deserted him. She did not dispute that. Mercy moved west shortly thereafter and evidently there was never a divorce. Family tradition of the "western cousins" is that Henry was a sort of "ne'er do well" and had a problem with alcohol too. Maybe Mercy just got fed up with him although it is more likely that Henry is the one who got fed up and just left his family. Then, all of the remaining children who survived, Rhoda, Newell, Henrietta and Fidelia all moved out west. What a scandal to say that Henry had run off and deserted them! How much easier to say - in a day of little mass communication - that Henry had simply died.

On 2 Jan 1862 in Southbridge, MA., Henry S Bacon, the son of Penuel and Sarah (Stevens) Bacon, age 57, born in Ware, MA., shows up getting married to Miss Julia Ann West. The details make it impossible that this is a different Henry. Furthermore, he declares that this is his first marriage!! So Henry was a bigamist!. There is no evidence that Henry and his second wife had any children.
(This last information from Earl P Crandall, 35 Pony Lane, Catskill, NY 12414.