George B. Bacon (1836–1876) was an United States clergyman and author of texts on religious issues. Bacon was a congregational pastor[1] in Orange, New Jersey.[2] The ministry ran in the Bacons' blood: George B. Bacon was the son of Leonard Bacon[3] and the brother of Leonard Woolsey Bacon,[4] both Congregationalist pastors; two other brothers were also preachers, Thomas Rutherford Bacon of New Haven,[5][6] and Edward Woolsey Bacon of New London, Connecticut.[7][8]
Bacon graduated from Yale University in 1856.[9] He became minister of the Congregational Church in Orange, New Jersey, in 1861,[10] and became a trustee of the American Congregational Union in 1866.[11] In 1875, he was again nominated as trustee of the board of regents of the Congregational Union, but publicly stated that he declined to serve on the board with Henry C. Bowen;[1] Bacon's father, Rev. Leonard Woolsey Bacon, felt misrepresented enough by remarks made by Bowen that he wrote a letter to the Chicago Tribune publicly disavowing any friendship with Bowen.[12] In the same year, George Bacon delivered the commencement address at the New York Medical College and Hospital for Women.[13]
Bacon, whom The Nation called a "lively" writer,[14] was a regular contributor to Scribner’s Monthly, writing on religious [15] as well as social topics (such as Chinese immigration to the United States[16]). He also wrote on the Sabbath question, an important subject in late-nineteenth century America when a debate was waged between those who saw the day of rest as a legal obligation and those, including Bacon, who considered it a Christian privilege.[17] He died at age 40, on 15 September 1876, after a "lingering illness". In a eulogy, Scribner’s Monthly called him a "model literary clergyman": "His contributions to the body of the magazine were always marked by broad views, intense dislike of sham and cant, by high moral purpose, and by a style as simple and direct as it was elegant and attractive."[15]