AUGUSTUS K. BACON M.D. has been identified with the history of Sault de Ste. Marie almost from the establishment of the city. Not only in his professional capacity but also officially. He has been instrumental in promoting many of its leading interests, and in all possible ways has aided in the development and advancement of this locality.

The Doctor is a native of Ohio, his birth having occnrred in Medina on the 7th of May, 1841. When nine years old he came with his parents to Michigan, who located in Kay, Macomb county, where he was reared. His father, Royal Bacon, was born in St. Lawrence county, New York, in 1815, , and by trade was a carder and redresser of cloth. He married Miss Sarah Wheelock, daughter of Captain Wheelock, who was a soldier in the war of 1812. The Wheelocks are a family of phynicians and Dr. Kent K. Wheelock, an eminent professor of Fort Wayne, Indiana, is a cousin of our subject. The parents of the Doctor had a family of five children, of whom he in the eldest. The others are Elliott, who died in the army; Rosanna, who is the wife of Edward Merrill and resides in West Pullman, Illinois; Olive, wife of Fremont Haines, of Utica, Michigan; and John C., who makes his home in Hay City.

Under the parental roof Dr. Bacon spent the days of his boyhood and youth, and in the schools of his native town acquired his literary education. After the breaking out of the Civil war, when he was twenty-one years of age, he offered his services to the Government, enlisting in the Union army as a member of Company F, Twenty-second Regiment of Michigan Volunteers at Macomb, this State. The company was commanded by Captain Ashley, the regiment by Colonel Moses Wisner. Our subject was mustered in at Pontiac, and the command was ordered to Covington, Kentucky, to aid in preventing General Bragg from getting far enough north to “water his horse in the Ohio river,” as be had boasted he would do, it being the Rebel leader’s plan to advance upon Ohio and capture Cincinnati. This waa prevented, however, by the troops sent to Covington. Later the command to which the Doctor was attached was ordered through Kentscky to Nashville, Tennessee, where they remained during the winter of 1862—3. The following spring they went to Chattanooga and participated in the hard-fought battle of Chickamanga, where the Twenty-second Michigan lost all their men, in killed or captured, save abont one hundred. When Company F responded to roll call after the battle, only ten members responded to their names! The Doctor was also in the Atlanta campaign, and when that city was captured returned to Chattanooga with “Pap” Thomas. He was honorably discharged there on the 26th of June 1865. He was always found at his post of duty, faithfully defending the old flag and the cause it represented, and though he participated in a number of very hotly contested battles he received no wound, nor was he ever captured.

Upon his return from the war Dr. Bacon took up the study of medicine under Dr. I Harris and finished his professional training in the Philadelphia Medical College. He opened his first office in Disco, Michigan, and on the 6th of January, 1882, came to Sault de Ste. Marie. Here he opened an office in the drug store of Charles Endresson on Water street, and some years afterward, on acquiring an interest in the drug business of James Wire & Company, he moved his office to tbe National Bank building, thence to his present location. He is now the oldest physician in years of continuous practice in this city, and from the public he receives a most liberal and well-deserved patronage. He has a most enviable reputation for skill and ability and keeps fully abreast with the times on everything connected with his chosen life-work.

On the 17th of March, 1868, Dr. Bacon was united in marriage, in Disco, Michigan, with Miss Josephine A. Moe, daughter of William Moe. They have got one child, a son, William K., who in March, 1893. married Miss Amanda Ring. The family is one of prominence in this community.

The Doctor is a Royal Arch Mason, a member of the G.A.R. and the I.O.O.F. He is a Republican, a member of the city council in Sault Ste Marie. Form many years he has served as Coroner.

Northern Peninsula of Michigan 1895