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Abel Bacon Jr.

Birth
Death
1823
Galen, Wayne County, New York, USA
Burial
Burial Details Unknown Add to Map
Memorial ID
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Abel Bacon Jr. (or Abel Bacon 2nd, he used both) was, according to the US Censuses of 1810 and 1820, born sometime between 1765 and 1775. A "FamilySearch" entry for "Abel Bacon Jr. has him born "about 1776", the son of Abel Bacon Sr. (1747-1805) and Sarah Morse McKinstry (1753-1814) and brother of Penuel Bacon (1775-1848). There is also mention of a brother William (1782-1827}. Unfortunately, FamilySearch offers "0" sources for this information and adds that "There are no historical documents attached to Abel", so we are entitled to be skeptical about the information offered there. Our Abel Bacon Jr. was obviously the son of some Abel Bacon Sr., but whether it was the one married to Sarah Morse Mckinstry we must regard as, so far, unproven. There is good reason to believe (shown below) that our Abel Bacon Jr. had a brother named Penuel, whose tombstone pictured on his Find a Grave Memorial, "Died June 15, 1848, aged 73 years" supports his inferred birth year of 1775. This, with the above referenced census data for Abel Jr., makes it more likely that Abel Jr. was older than Penuel, not younger as the FamilySearch entry asserts.

New York State Censuses for 1855, 1865 and 1875 all assert that Abel M. Bacon of Cattaraugus County, N.Y. was born in Oneida County, N.Y. 1799/1800. As Abel M. Bacon is provably the son of Abel Bacon Jr., we are pretty safe in assuming that the latter was also in Oneida at that time. (Note that Penuel Bacon was also in Oneida in the late 1790s, but bought a "Quit Claim' for land that he was already occupying in Marcellus, Onondaga County, N.Y. in 1798, which both reinforces, if weakly, the idea that Abel Jr. and Penuel were related, and offers some pretty good evidence against the proposition, put forward by some, that Penuel, not Abel Jr., was the father of Abel M. Bacon. Penuel was not likely to be Abel M.'s father if he had already moved out the county where Abel M. was born a year or more before the event. But as the "Quit Claim" mentioned seem to show that Penuel could be in two places at once, he being described as "of Cazenovia, Oneida County" at the same time that the Onondaga property is "in his actual possession", we can suspend judgement on this issue for now. The proof that Abel M. Bacon was the son of Abel Jr. will come later.)

The 1800 US Census seems to have missed Abel Bacon Jr. entirely. It does find "Pennywell Bacon" in Marcellus, Onondaga Co. as expected. It's possible that Abel Jr. moved out of Oneida in 1800, leaving too soon to be counted in the Oneida census, but arriving at his destination too late to be counted among the citizens of that place. But this is just speculation.

The first direct evidence of the whereabouts of Abel Jr. after 1800 is his purchase on 25 February 1808 of 119.8 acres of land in lot no. 59 in Romulus, Seneca County, N.Y. with a down payment of $53 (total price $420) paid to the State of New York. We don't know where he's been between 1800 and 1808. The idea that his son John, born in 1803, was born in Cayuga County, N.Y. may have been based on just the fact that the land Abel Jr. bought in Seneca County in 1808 was, in 1803, still located in Cayuga County. (New York county boundaries and also township boundaries, were changing a lot around this time, especially out on the semi-inhabited frontier.) But that would imply that Abel Jr. built, occupied and operated a farm in Cayuga County starting at least five years before he had, by his down payment, established his right to be there, knowing that at any time the land might be sold out from under him. It's not impossible that he was there. Squatting on vacant land was not an unknown practice. But that Abel Jr. did that for five years or more at least stretches credulity. Between 1800 and 1808 he may have been in Oneida or he may have been in Onondaga. Or he may have been somewhere else. We don't know. But he was probably not in Cayuga County or Seneca County.

On 23 July 1816 Abel Jr., now living in the town of Galen, Seneca County, N.Y., through an attorney, made his final payment on the Romulus land and on 5 August 1816 acquired the deed. Abel Jr. and Pamela his wife of the town of Galen, Seneca County, N.Y., sold this Romulus land in two parcels, 79.66 acres on 28 February 1819 to Nathaniel Ayers for $1450 and the remaining 40 acres "more or less" on 10 March 1819, also to Nathaniel Ayers, for $306.

At the time of his death in 1823, Abel Jr. was in possession of 50 acres of land in the northwest corner of lot 99 in the part of Galen which became the town of Savannah, Wayne County, N.Y. I have not found the record of his purchase of this land in Galen, but it's possible that the reason that he sold it to the same person in two transactions ten days apart might have been that he needed the money from the first sale to buy the land he wanted in Galen, but if that planned purchase fell through for some reason, he would still have some place to live while he looked for another parcel of land that he could buy. So I speculate that he acquired the Galen land sometime between those two dates, that is, between 28 February and 10 March, 1819.

It was later in this same year, on 3 July 1819, that Abel 2nd made his last will and testament. His will probate and inventory of estate were filed with the court on 19 January 1824. His exact date of death was not mentioned in any of the probate documents. But the fact that the executors signed off on the inventory on 15 December 1823 suggest that he died sometime in late 1823. But so far as the available documentary evidence is concerned, he might have died any time between 1820 and December 1823. FamilySearch has him dying "on 7 September 1823, at the age of 48" but where that date comes from they do not say.

In his will, Abel Jr. "weak in body, but sound in mind and memory" says "In primus I give & bequeath unto my beloved wife Pamila all my personal and real property as long as she remains my widow…. 2ndly I do will & bequeath after the widowhood of my beloved wife Pamila all my real or landed property unto my two oldest sons William & Abel Bacon. 3rdly I do will & bequeath after the widowhood of my beloved wife all my personal property to be equally divided amongst my six youngest children or their heirs, that is John, Sophia, Marques D., Sarah, Nathan & Pamila Bacons…."

In her 23 October 1850 petition to the County Judge of the County of Wayne, N.Y. concerning the will of her deceased husband Nathan Bacon, his widow Deborah Bacon of Savannah, Wayne County, N.Y. names and locates Nathan's "heirs at law" as follows: "William Bacon and Sophia Carndyke wife of Levi Carndyke of Savannah aforesaid, John Bacon of Henrietta, Jackson County, Michigan, Abel Bacon of Dayton, Cattaraugus County New York and Marquis Bacon who resides somewhere in the State of Illinois, but at what particular place your petitioner has not upon enquiry been able to ascertain, the brothers and sisters of the said deceased, all of whom are of full age…."

Two things of special interest about this petition:

1. The names of Nathan Bacon and his brothers and sister match perfectly the names of Abel Jr.'s children as given in his will if we assume that his daughters Sarah and Pamila have died without issue sometime in the interim.

2. It proves that the Abel M. Bacon found in Dayton, Cattaraugus County, N.Y. then and thereafter is the son of Abel Bacon Jr. and not of Penuel Bacon as some have claimed.

Added note: Marquis or (Marques D.) Bacon was found living in Logan County, Illinois in the 1850 US Census as Lamarcus Bacon. His gravestone in Woodbury, Iowa where he died in 1862 bears the name "Lemarcus D. Bacon". He was undoubtedly named after the French hero of the American Revolution, popularly known here as "La Marquis de Lafayette". The "de Lafayette" part was reduced to just the initial "D." The "La" being the French word for "The", it was included or not at the whim of the bearer (or the whim of whatever government official was writing it down – Marques/Lamarcus was illiterate.)
Abel Bacon Jr. (or Abel Bacon 2nd, he used both) was, according to the US Censuses of 1810 and 1820, born sometime between 1765 and 1775. A "FamilySearch" entry for "Abel Bacon Jr. has him born "about 1776", the son of Abel Bacon Sr. (1747-1805) and Sarah Morse McKinstry (1753-1814) and brother of Penuel Bacon (1775-1848). There is also mention of a brother William (1782-1827}. Unfortunately, FamilySearch offers "0" sources for this information and adds that "There are no historical documents attached to Abel", so we are entitled to be skeptical about the information offered there. Our Abel Bacon Jr. was obviously the son of some Abel Bacon Sr., but whether it was the one married to Sarah Morse Mckinstry we must regard as, so far, unproven. There is good reason to believe (shown below) that our Abel Bacon Jr. had a brother named Penuel, whose tombstone pictured on his Find a Grave Memorial, "Died June 15, 1848, aged 73 years" supports his inferred birth year of 1775. This, with the above referenced census data for Abel Jr., makes it more likely that Abel Jr. was older than Penuel, not younger as the FamilySearch entry asserts.

New York State Censuses for 1855, 1865 and 1875 all assert that Abel M. Bacon of Cattaraugus County, N.Y. was born in Oneida County, N.Y. 1799/1800. As Abel M. Bacon is provably the son of Abel Bacon Jr., we are pretty safe in assuming that the latter was also in Oneida at that time. (Note that Penuel Bacon was also in Oneida in the late 1790s, but bought a "Quit Claim' for land that he was already occupying in Marcellus, Onondaga County, N.Y. in 1798, which both reinforces, if weakly, the idea that Abel Jr. and Penuel were related, and offers some pretty good evidence against the proposition, put forward by some, that Penuel, not Abel Jr., was the father of Abel M. Bacon. Penuel was not likely to be Abel M.'s father if he had already moved out the county where Abel M. was born a year or more before the event. But as the "Quit Claim" mentioned seem to show that Penuel could be in two places at once, he being described as "of Cazenovia, Oneida County" at the same time that the Onondaga property is "in his actual possession", we can suspend judgement on this issue for now. The proof that Abel M. Bacon was the son of Abel Jr. will come later.)

The 1800 US Census seems to have missed Abel Bacon Jr. entirely. It does find "Pennywell Bacon" in Marcellus, Onondaga Co. as expected. It's possible that Abel Jr. moved out of Oneida in 1800, leaving too soon to be counted in the Oneida census, but arriving at his destination too late to be counted among the citizens of that place. But this is just speculation.

The first direct evidence of the whereabouts of Abel Jr. after 1800 is his purchase on 25 February 1808 of 119.8 acres of land in lot no. 59 in Romulus, Seneca County, N.Y. with a down payment of $53 (total price $420) paid to the State of New York. We don't know where he's been between 1800 and 1808. The idea that his son John, born in 1803, was born in Cayuga County, N.Y. may have been based on just the fact that the land Abel Jr. bought in Seneca County in 1808 was, in 1803, still located in Cayuga County. (New York county boundaries and also township boundaries, were changing a lot around this time, especially out on the semi-inhabited frontier.) But that would imply that Abel Jr. built, occupied and operated a farm in Cayuga County starting at least five years before he had, by his down payment, established his right to be there, knowing that at any time the land might be sold out from under him. It's not impossible that he was there. Squatting on vacant land was not an unknown practice. But that Abel Jr. did that for five years or more at least stretches credulity. Between 1800 and 1808 he may have been in Oneida or he may have been in Onondaga. Or he may have been somewhere else. We don't know. But he was probably not in Cayuga County or Seneca County.

On 23 July 1816 Abel Jr., now living in the town of Galen, Seneca County, N.Y., through an attorney, made his final payment on the Romulus land and on 5 August 1816 acquired the deed. Abel Jr. and Pamela his wife of the town of Galen, Seneca County, N.Y., sold this Romulus land in two parcels, 79.66 acres on 28 February 1819 to Nathaniel Ayers for $1450 and the remaining 40 acres "more or less" on 10 March 1819, also to Nathaniel Ayers, for $306.

At the time of his death in 1823, Abel Jr. was in possession of 50 acres of land in the northwest corner of lot 99 in the part of Galen which became the town of Savannah, Wayne County, N.Y. I have not found the record of his purchase of this land in Galen, but it's possible that the reason that he sold it to the same person in two transactions ten days apart might have been that he needed the money from the first sale to buy the land he wanted in Galen, but if that planned purchase fell through for some reason, he would still have some place to live while he looked for another parcel of land that he could buy. So I speculate that he acquired the Galen land sometime between those two dates, that is, between 28 February and 10 March, 1819.

It was later in this same year, on 3 July 1819, that Abel 2nd made his last will and testament. His will probate and inventory of estate were filed with the court on 19 January 1824. His exact date of death was not mentioned in any of the probate documents. But the fact that the executors signed off on the inventory on 15 December 1823 suggest that he died sometime in late 1823. But so far as the available documentary evidence is concerned, he might have died any time between 1820 and December 1823. FamilySearch has him dying "on 7 September 1823, at the age of 48" but where that date comes from they do not say.

In his will, Abel Jr. "weak in body, but sound in mind and memory" says "In primus I give & bequeath unto my beloved wife Pamila all my personal and real property as long as she remains my widow…. 2ndly I do will & bequeath after the widowhood of my beloved wife Pamila all my real or landed property unto my two oldest sons William & Abel Bacon. 3rdly I do will & bequeath after the widowhood of my beloved wife all my personal property to be equally divided amongst my six youngest children or their heirs, that is John, Sophia, Marques D., Sarah, Nathan & Pamila Bacons…."

In her 23 October 1850 petition to the County Judge of the County of Wayne, N.Y. concerning the will of her deceased husband Nathan Bacon, his widow Deborah Bacon of Savannah, Wayne County, N.Y. names and locates Nathan's "heirs at law" as follows: "William Bacon and Sophia Carndyke wife of Levi Carndyke of Savannah aforesaid, John Bacon of Henrietta, Jackson County, Michigan, Abel Bacon of Dayton, Cattaraugus County New York and Marquis Bacon who resides somewhere in the State of Illinois, but at what particular place your petitioner has not upon enquiry been able to ascertain, the brothers and sisters of the said deceased, all of whom are of full age…."

Two things of special interest about this petition:

1. The names of Nathan Bacon and his brothers and sister match perfectly the names of Abel Jr.'s children as given in his will if we assume that his daughters Sarah and Pamila have died without issue sometime in the interim.

2. It proves that the Abel M. Bacon found in Dayton, Cattaraugus County, N.Y. then and thereafter is the son of Abel Bacon Jr. and not of Penuel Bacon as some have claimed.

Added note: Marquis or (Marques D.) Bacon was found living in Logan County, Illinois in the 1850 US Census as Lamarcus Bacon. His gravestone in Woodbury, Iowa where he died in 1862 bears the name "Lemarcus D. Bacon". He was undoubtedly named after the French hero of the American Revolution, popularly known here as "La Marquis de Lafayette". The "de Lafayette" part was reduced to just the initial "D." The "La" being the French word for "The", it was included or not at the whim of the bearer (or the whim of whatever government official was writing it down – Marques/Lamarcus was illiterate.)


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