Josiah Bacon was killed by a dentist he pursued across the

country in 1879
Josiah Bacon was born about 1832 to Joseph and Sarah Bacon in Boston, Massachusetts. The Kane
Weekly Blade (Pennsylvania) described Josiah Bacon as striking in appearance. The author wrote
that he resembled Czar Nicholas, who was the father of the present emperor of Russia when this
story was published on April 24, 1879. In 1860 Josiah Bacon was living in the home of his father,
Joseph S. Bacon, at the age of 33, in Brookline, Massachusetts. Josiah Bason's wife Sarah Thayer
Burrell Bacon, aged 30, also lived in the residence. Josiah had married Sarah in San Fransisco on
June 30, 1856. They lived in San Fransisco for a while and then moved to Boston. They had no
children.

Samuel P. Chalfant Sept 23, 1880, 2nd degree murder, age 35.
Tulare County California Register and Descriptive List of Convicts Under Sentence
Bacon become a patent enforcer of sorts for the Goodyear Vulcanite Rubber Company. Every dentist
was required, by law, to pay the company $35 a year. The fee went up to $40 if they didn't pay right
away. Today that $35 would be equal to about $778.00 per year. If a dentist was not making much
and just starting out in a dental practice that may have been difficult for them to come up with that
kind of money. Josiah Bacon traveled around the country for about 12 to 15 years collecting this
money from dentists. Bacon was said to keep records of conversations with dentists in journals
which were introduced in courtroom proceedings as "true records". If they refused to pay him he
would take dentists to court and put ads in local newspapers about them having their Vulcanite
licenses revoked.

The dentist that ended up murdering Bacon had graduated from the Philadelphia School of Dentistry
in 1871. His name was Samuel P. Chalfant and was born in East Fallowfield, Chester County,
Pennsylvania to John and Anna L (Ellis) Chalfant in 1843. His mother seems to be out of the picture
by 1850 when the federal census was taken. One descendant noted that Anna Ellis Chalfant died in
1847 when young Samuel was only 3 years old. Chalfant grew up on his father's farm with his older
sister Martha and three older brothers named Oliver, Branthy and Robert. The land they lived on
had been in the family for many generations. He attended school in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. When
the Civil War broke out he joined the army at the age of 16, in 1861. He served in the Civil War for
three years. After he was mustered out of the Army, Chalfant attended Lewisburg University for
three years. In 1866 he also started a preceptorship with a dentist named R. L. McLellan in Chester,
Pennsylvania. He was McLellan's assistant for two years and then went to dental school in
Philadelphia. After graduating from dental school he began to practice in Philadelphia.
A lawsuit was filed by Bacon against Dr. Chalfant in Philadelphia for not paying the patent fee for
using the Goodyear Vulcanized rubber for dentures. Bacon won the lawsuit. Chalfant then moved
and began to practice in Wilmington, Delaware. Again a lawsuit was filed by Bacon against Chalfant
on behalf of the Goodyear Vulcanite Rubber Company in Delaware. After losing another lawsuit
Chalfant left for St. Louis, Missouri. Once again Bacon tracked down Chalfant and took him to court
for using the Goodyear rubber to make dentures without paying the fee to the company. In 1876,
Chalfant left Missouri and moved to San Francisco.
The Daily Kennebec Journal (Augusta, Maine) published a story on April 19, 1879 which stated that
Mr. Bacon had been forewarned about the possibility of being shot and killed if he returned to San
Fransisco. A fellow employee named Mr. Caduc, who also worked for the Goodyear Vulcanite
Company, had made the trip to San Fransisco earlier that year. When Caduc returned to Boston he
told Bacon that if he returned to San Fransisco and filed a lawsuit he had been warned by someone
in San Fransisco that Bacon would be shot. Bacon decided not to heed that warning and left Boston
for San Fransisco on March 18th, 1879.
Bacon found Chalfant in San Fransisco using the Goodyear Vulcanite rubber for dentures. Another
lawsuit was filed by Bacon against Chalfant on April 11, 1879 in San Fransisco. Bacon, as was said
by the press, carried himself in a dictatorial style when he was in court. Chalfant went to the hotel
where Bacon was staying in San Fransisco and shot and killed Josiah Bacon on April 13, 1879.
Chalfant had only been out of dental school for about 8 years and had been taken to court 4 times in
4 different states by Bacon by the time the murder took place.
Right away the police investigating the shooting realized Bacon's murderer might be a dentist. They
went to every dental office in San Francisco and all of the dentist were accounted for that day,
except for Chalfant. Only Chalfant's assistant, named Mr. Richards, was at his dental practice and he
told police that his boss had left the office, located at 19 - Sixth Street, around ten o'clock that
morning.
The police also learned that Dr. Chalfant had previously served as a Sergeant in the Civil War. He
had been in Captain Samuel Cascadin's Company D of the 52nd Pennsylvania Volunteers. A citywide
search began for Chalfant and a description was written about him in the local San Fransisco
newspaper.
The Holton Recorder out of Holton, Kansas re-printed a story out of the San Fransisco Chronicle on
Thursday May 1st, 1879, which gave a description of Chalfant. He was described as "a stout man
with black hair and a dark brown mustache, very minute side whiskers, broad, square forehead, face
broad and features regular, chin square and inclined to be double, nose slightly retrousse and bright

and sparkling eyes." He was said to have weighed 160 pounds. He was dressed, when he was last
seen, in a black business suit and wearing a round topped hat and a gold watch and chain. Chalfant
was also said to have been highly esteemed by his friends as very companionable, warm in his
nature and generous to a fault.
Many of the newspapers that ran stories about Bacon's murder also added that dentists around the
country disliked Bacon and most paid the patent fee just to avoid being taken to court. The less
prosperous dentists and newly practicing dentists sometimes had great difficulty coming up with the
money to pay Bacon the patent fees. Bacon would file a court case against a dentist for not paying
the patent license fee. The dentist then also incurred court fees and legal fees to hire a lawyer to
defend him. Upon winning the court case Bacon would place newspaper announcements that the
dentist did not pay the patent fees and that their license to use Vulcanite rubber had been revoked.
Bacon destroyed many dentist's careers during the time he worked for Goodyear Vulcanite. That was
what happened with Dr. Chalfant. He would move to another city to start over and Bacon would
follow him there and file another court case and the game would begin all over again. Dr. Chalfant
just wanted this to end.
Dr. Chalfant went to the Baldwin Hotel in San Fransisco looking for Bacon several times before
actually shooting him on a Sunday morning in his third floor hotel room. The chambermaid found
Bacon at around noon that day. Bacon was shot below the naval and his head struck the wall before
falling to the floor. Some of his hair was found adhered to the wall. The door was left open and only
one guest said they heard the pistol shot and that it was not loud enough to cause them to be
alarmed. The other hotel guests were at breakfast on the first floor and reported not hearing
anything at the time Bacon was shot. Bacon was left to bleed out on the Coming From Experts on
Oral Health - Some Tips floor of his hotel room. No one checked on him until the maid found him at
noon. Chalfant could not be located for several days and was wandering around the sand hills
outside of San Fransisco and near the railroad tracks, not eating or sleeping. He surrendered to the
San Fransisco police on April 16, 1879. He told police the shooting had been accidental.
Other dentists also experienced lawsuits filed by Bacon and had their names published in the paper.
Dr. W.F. Griswold of Leavenworth, Kansas was one of these dentists. Bacon published his name in
the paper and offered reward money for information if anyone was using Vulcanite for dentures
without paying the patent fee (The Leavenworth Times, Thurs Jan 13, 1870). Four other dentists had
their names posted in a Bangor, Maine newspaper as a "caution to the public" by Josiah Bacon. They
were Philander Evans, J. Strickland, K Lincoln and C.A. Jordan. These dentists had not paid the
patent fee and were not licensed to use Vulcanite for dentures. The ad said these dentists had their
licenses revoked to use rubber as a base for dentures. The ad warned that if the public went to these
dentists they would be held liable for patent infringement (Bangor Daily Whig and Courier, April 20,
1867).
Dr. John A. Cummings, of Boston, who claimed to have invented the Vulcanite rubber dental plate
had filed for a patent in 1864. Prior to that many dentists were already using the material and did
not understand why they suddenly had to pay patent fees. Many dentists were said to have been
delighted when the patent finally expired in 1872 - or so they thought. Josiah Bacon was said to have
found a way to make the royalties from the patent keep coming in legally by extending the limit of
the patent until the day Chalfant murdered him.
Many people knew about the controversy between dentists and the patent fees. In 1867, a man
calling himself James Hurd was going from dentist to dentist attempting to collect patent fees from
them. Josiah Bacon was contacted about this and let the Brookville Indiana American newspaper
know that James H. Hurd was in no way associated with Goodyear Dental Vulcanite Rubber

Company. Hurd had been trying to con dentists out of money using the Goodyear Dental Vulcanite
company name.
The Boston Post announced that Bacon's body was expected to be returned from San Fransisco to
Boston by Monday April 28, 1879. The private funeral was planned at the residence of Mr. T.H.
Bacon in Milton, Massachusetts (Boston Post, Thurs April 24, 1879). Bacon had been a member of a
Congregationalist church and was also a member of the Columbian Lodge of the Masons in
Massachusetts since 1865. At the time he was killed, Bacon was getting ready to attend a service at
a Congregationalist Church in San Fransisco.
Chalfant was brought to trial. He was sentenced to 10 years in San Quentin prison for second degree
murder. The U.S. Census Bureau has a record of Chalfant being in the City and County Jail in San
Fransisco on June 23, 1880. The Tulare County, California, sheriff's office and jail records had
Samuel P. Chalfant logged in as an inmate on September 23, 1880. The Dental Cosmos Journal (Vol.
17, 1886) also noted that Chalford had been in the San Quentin prison in California in a story about
his murder case.
A petition had been started for the release of prisoner Samuel P. Chalfant immediately after he was
convicted. The petition had been circulating for three years and had many signatures on it calling for
his pardon. Many citizens thought Chalfant had been unfairly convicted after being chased out of
each town while he was trying to make a living as a dentist. Chalfant became the prison dentist and
was given an office located outside of the San Quentin prison walls. Several newspapers reported
that a lady visitor, named Mrs. Perkins, who had been petitioning for his release, came to see Dr.
Chalfant at his prison dental office and brought a change of clothes for him which included a white
hat and goggles on September 3, 1883. The Chicago Daily Tribune reported that Dr. Chalfant had
boarded a steamer and ended up in Rye Patch, Nevada. A railroad detective had spotted Chalfant
and let the police know he was there. He was captured by the Chief of Police on September 5, 1883.
The Chicago Daily Tribune also stated that Chalfant was said to have had a great deal of money on
hand and a ticket to Ogden when they caught him. He was returned to the prison.
After many upstanding and well known citizens signed the petition for his release, Dr. Chalfant was
pardoned by California Governor Stoneman on August 7th, 1885. The Judge, the Assistant District
Attorney who had prosecuted him, as well as every member of the jury who had convicted him and
almost the entire San Fransisco press were united in wanting Chalfant pardoned. Many ministers
and ex-governors of several states also petitioned the courts and the governor for Chalfant's release
from prison. At the time he was released, Chalfant was said to be an invalid. (Appendix to the
Journals of Senate and Assembly, State of California, Vol. 1, 1887)
The Dental Cosmos published a letter from Dr. Chalfant in a dental magazine entitled Items of
Interest in January 1886 concerning Chalfant's alleged involvement with Mrs. Perkins:

Dr Chalfant's Pardon - Dr C writes: The paragraph which I have just read in relation to myself in the
Items of Interest for the month of June is far from the truth. My pardon was not brought about
chiefly by the ingenious persistency of a woman. If Mrs Perkins is now to become Mrs Chalfant she
is to marry a man with whom I am not acquainted. The facts are these, I was pardoned just ten
months and four days ago and would have been released long before had it not been for the
persistency of the woman who was so anxious to claim the credit of giving me my liberty. I escaped
from the penitentiary once more for the purpose of extricating myself from the silken fetters of love
which the persistent widow was endeavoring to ensnare me with, than for getting away from the

prison. Mrs Perkins made my imprisonment the chief means of support for herself and her mother.
She collected several hundred dollars in addition to rents and favors that were extended her in
various ways on the ground of being my affianced wife, so believed. It is exceedingly disagreeable to
me to see my name associated with hers in any way. Yours Respectfully San Francisco Cal Samuel P
Chalfant
In 1900, Samuel P. Chalfant, was listed as a dentist living in San Fransisco in the U.S. Federal
Census. It was noted he had been born in Pennsylvania in April of 1843. He was living with John
Chalfant who was also a dentist born in Pennsylvania in June of 1870. No one else was living with
them in the household. John was listed as his partner.
On December 6, 1902 Samuel P. Chalfant was admitted to the soldiers home in Sawtelle, Los
Angeles County, California and he left at his own request on May 24, 1906.
Samuel P. Chalfant died on July 15, 1906 in Erie, Pennsylvania of a cerebral hemorrhage. His
occupation on the death certificate was given as dentist. The birth date on his death record was
given as December 11, 1843 in Pennsylvania. He is buried in the Veterans Memorial Cemetery in
Erie County, Pennsylvania.
On August 15, 1872 Michigan dentists met in Jackson and had a meeting to decide what to do about
Josiah Bacon and the Goodyear Vulcanite company. Ten dentists in Michigan were being taken to
court by Bacon at that time. Bacon made the claim that 5,000 of the 15,000 dentists in the country
had made patent payments. Michigan was the first state where dentists organized against Josiah
Bacon and the Goodyear Vulcanite patent fees. Bacon kept winning cases in courts of law but ended
up dead because of his relentless pursuit of patent fees and of one dentist in particular.