Leonard’s fa­ther was Da­vid Ba­con, mis­sion­ary to the In­di­ans. In his child­hood years in Tall­madge, Ohio, Leo­nard was a class­mate to John Brown, who lat­er be­came a not­ed ab­o­li­tion­ist.

Bacon ma­tric­u­lat­ed at Yale Un­i­ver­si­ty in au­tumn 1817. Af­ter grad­u­a­tion, he en­tered An­do­ver The­o­lo­gic­al Sem­i­nary. He was or­dained as an evan­gel­ist by the Hart­ford North Con­so­ci­a­tion, as­sembled at Wind­sor, Con­nec­ti­cut, Sep­tem­ber 28, 1824. In 1825, he be­came pas­tor of the First Church in New Ha­ven, Con­nec­ti­cut.

Bacon’s works in­clude:

• Hymns and Sac­red Songs for the Month­ly Con­cert, 1823
• Select Prac­ti­cal Writ­ings of Rich­ard Bax­ter, 1831
• A Man­u­al for Young Church Mem­bers, 1833
• Thirteen His­tor­i­cal Dis­cours­es
• The Good­ly Her­i­tage of Con­nec­ti­cut, 1840
• Early Con­sti­tu­tion­al His­to­ry of Con­nec­ti­cut, 1843
• Commemorative Dis­course, 1858
• Historical Dis­course, 1859
• Civil Gov­ern­ment in New Ha­ven Col­o­ny, 1862
• The Gen­e­sis of the New Eng­land Church­es, 1874
• The Re­la­tions of the Con­gre­ga­tional Church­es of Con­nec­ti­cut to Ci­vil Gov­ern­ment, and to Pop­u­lar Educa­tion and So­cial Re­forms, 1876

• Bailey, pp. 492-4
• Haeussler, p. 537
• Hatfield, pp. 28-30
• Hughes, p. 302
• Julian, pp. 105-6

1. God of Our Fa­thers, to Thy Throne
2. Hail, Tran­quil Hour of Clos­ing Day
3. Here, Lord of Life and Light, to Thee
4. How Sweet, Through Long Re­mem­bered Years
5. Land Where the Bones of Our Fa­thers Are
6. O God, Be­neath Thy Guid­ing Hand
7. O God of Ab­ra­ham, Ev­er Sure
8. O Thou Who Hast Died to Re­deem Us from Hell
9. Though Now the Na­tions Sit Be­neath
10. Wake the Song of Ju­bi­lee
11. Weep Not for the Saint That As­cends