A
valuable and well improved farm of three hundred and twenty
acres on section 28, Senachwine township, Putnam county, is the
property of J. C. BACON and in the midst of the well tilled
fields stands his fine country residence and substantial farm
buildings, the entire place having a neat and well kept
appearance which indicates the supervision and practical methods
of the owner, whose knowledge and experience in farming matters
have gained him a foremost place among the agriculturists of the
county. This farm was his birthplace, his natal day being April
12, 1860. His father, Emory C. BACON, was born in Huron county,
Ohio, December 9, 1830, and came to Putnam county, Illinois,
with his father, Samuel C. BACON, at an early day. The
grandfather purchased land in Senachwine township a part of the
farm now owned by our subject and was thus identified with
farming interests in pioneer times. On the 21st of January,
1854, Emory BACON was married to Susan L. ASH, who was born in
Hennepin township, Putnam county, July 28, 1833, a daughter of
Joseph ASH, who had settled in that township the year previous,
becoming one of the earliest residents of this part of the
state. Emory C. BACON was engaged in general agricultural
pursuits and thus provided for his family until after the
outbreak of the Civil war, when, feeling that his country needed
his aid, he enlisted in defense of the Union and died in the
hospital when his son, J. C. BACON, was only two years old. His
widow afterward married Ambrose BACON, a distant relative of her
first husband, but both are now deceased. Mrs. BACON died in
1871 upon the farm where her son J. C. BACON now resides. Of the
six children of the family, four died in infancy. A brother,
Clifford BACON, lives in Tiskilwa, while a half sister, now Mrs.
M. B. DRAKE, is living in Helena, Montana.
J. C. BACON was eleven years of age when his mother died. He then went to live with an uncle, Lawrence LIPPERT, who resided in Hennepin township, and with whom he resided until he attained his majority. He attended the district schools and later had the advantage of a course in the Illinois State Normal. When twenty-one years of age he came into possession of the old home farm of one hundred and twenty acres by buying out the interests of the other heirs, and he then took up farming on his own account and has added to the place until he now owns three hundred and forty acres of land. The soil is rich and productive and his attention is given to the cultivation of various cereals. Well tilled, the fields bring forth abundant harvests and his business is profitably conducted. The latest improved machinery facilitates the work of the fields and he keeps in touch with the progress made along scientific lines for the benefit of the farmer.
Mr. BACON was married April 12, 1882, to Miss Carrie M. READ, who was born in Henry, Marshall county, a daughter of E. L. and Mary A. (BROCAW) READ, both of whom were natives of New Jersey. Her father, who has been a carpenter all of his life, is still living in Henry, at the age of eighty-one years. At the time of the gold discoveries in the west he went to Pike's peak, but for many years he has made his home in this portion of the state and in earlier years was closely associated with building interests. Mrs. BACON was a student in the public schools of Henry and later attended the State Normal, at Normal, Illinois. She taught school in both Bureau and Putnam counties prior to her marriage. Unto Mr. and Mrs. BACON have been born six children: Samuel, Eugene, Ralph, Beryl, Susa and Elsie. All are yet with their parents and Beryl is attending the State Normal. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Henry and the members of the household are prominent in the social circles where true worth and intelligence are received as the passports of good society. Mr. BACON votes with the republican party. He has served as road commissioner one term and is now serving for the third year as assessor, and he regards a public office as a public trust, to the duties of which he is ever most faithful. He belongs to the Modern Woodmen camp at Putnam. With little assistance at the outset of his career Mr. BACON has made steady progress on the highroad to prosperity by utilizing the means at hand and his own abilities to the best advantage. The duty which has come to him each day he has performed and has thus found inspiration and encouragement for the labors of the succeeding day, and the rewards of honorable labor are now his.
Extracted July 2011 by Norma Hass from Past and Present of Marshall and Putnam Counties Illinois, 1907.
| Bureau | Putnam | |
| Stark |
 |
La Salle |
| Peoria | Woodford |
