The Congregationalists(1904), by Leonard Woolsey Bacon (Original Version)

Leonard Woolsey Bacon (January 1, 1830 - May 12, 1907)was an American clergyman, born in New Haven, Connecticut. He was a social commentator and a prolific author on religious, social, and historical matters. In social, political, and religious issues of his times, he often broke with the traditions of his countrymen, sometimes causing "great sensation."Biography--Leonard Woolsey Bacon was a son of the Congregationalist preacher Leonard Bacon, a brother of George B. Bacon of Orange, New Jersey, and Edward Woolsey Bacon, and a half-brother of Thomas Rutherford Bacon of New Haven, Connecticut, all Congregational preachers. He graduated from Yale University in 1850, and in 1856 was ordained in Litchfield. He was also pastor of the First Church in Stamford, Connecticut (1862-65), and of the New England Congregational Church in Brooklyn, New York (1865-70).Subsequently he spent several years in Europe, chiefly in Geneva, as a student, preacher, and writer; in Geneva he spent part of his time preaching to "Americans sojourning there."From 1878 to 1882 he was pastor of the Park Congregational Church in Norwich, Connecticut, and later of other Congregational and Presbyterian churches. In 1887, he was the pastor of the Independent Presbyterian Church in Savannah, Georgia. In 1898, he was pastor of the First Church in Litchfield, Connecticut.He was pastor of the North Church in Assonet, Massachusetts beginning in 1901, and authored a history of the churches of Freetown, Massachusetts in 1902. He died at Assonet, May 12, 1907, and was buried in Grove Street Cemetery, New Haven, Connecticut.