Quarter-length portrait of Edward Payson Bacon, Milwaukee railroad executive and merchant. View the original here. 

Edward Payson Bacon was born in Reading Township in Steuben (now Schuyler) County, NY. After intermittent schooling, he worked for various eastern railroads and moved to Chicago in 1855 to take charge of the freight department for the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad. In 1856 he moved to Milwaukee to  organize and supervise the administrative offices of the Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad Company until 1865. In this capacity he developed methods of accounting and conducting freight and passenger departments that came into widespread use on western railroads.

In 1865 he entered the grain-commission business and was immediately successful. He eventually became one of the largest grain traders in the Midwest.

During the early 1900's, Bacon was one of the leaders of the movement to promote more equitable railroad rates and was the spokesman of a nationwide association of commercial organizations lobbying for a more powerful Interstate Commerce Commission. The agitation was instrumental in securing the passage of the Hepburn Act in 1906, which gave the ICC power to determine reasonable rates and make these rates binding pending a court decision.

He was vice-president of the National Board of Trade from 1884 until 1889, and a member from 1865 until 1893 and president from 1891 to 1893 of the Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce. He was an organizer and active supporter of the Milwaukee YMCA, and a member of the board of trustees of Beloit College, where he established several scholarships. 

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]