Isaac Bronson

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the American politician and judge, see Isaac H. Bronson.
Isaac Bronson
Greenfield Hill
, Connecticut, U.S.
Occupation(s)Surgeon, investor, banker
Spouse
Anna Olcott
​
​
(m. 1789⁠–⁠1838)​
Children10
Parent(s)Isaac Bronson
Mary Bronson
RelativesFrederic Bronson (grandson)

Dr. Isaac Bronson (March 10, 1760 in

New York Life Insurance and Trust Company and Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company. Bronson was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati
.

Early life

Bronson was born on March 10, 1760, in Middlebury, Connecticut. He was the son of Captain Isaac Bronson (1736–1826) and Mary Bronson (d. 1810), and the older brother of Ethel Bronson (1765–1825), who married Hepzibah Hopkins Bronson (1768–1829)[1] and Silas Bronson (1788-1867). His father was a farmer who was also a member of the Connecticut General Assembly.[2]

His paternal grandparents were Isaac Bronson (1707–1799)

nee Richards) Bronson (1716–1749).[1]

Career

Bronson studied medicine with Dr. Lemuel Hopkins in Litchfield. On November 14, 1779, he received a warrant to become a junior surgeon at the age of 19. During the American Revolutionary War, he served in the 2nd Regiment of Light Dragoons under George Washington, eventually becoming senior surgeon (attaining the rank of colonel) until the War ended in 1783.[4] Bronson made a personal appeal to George Washington to have his mates treated fairly and awarded pensions like the other officers. Three decades later, the omission was finally addressed and surgeons were granted full pay for life.[4]

Later career

After the War, Isaac Bronson became interested in foreign commerce and traveled as far as China, returning with valuable cargo which he sold at a profit. Bronson then pursued a career in purchasing and selling government obligations. He invested in the new American government's debt, assisted by many friends from former officers, including

Secretary of the Treasury in Washington's first cabinet. in some cases purchasing it for ten cents on the dollar. When the debt recovered to its face value, he had made a fortune. Bronson also invested in the Bank of the United States.[4]

In 1807, he founded the

Bank of New York in 1922)[6] and Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company.[7]

By 1828, he was one of the wealthiest men in New York City, with assets of more than $250,000.[2] Bronson also owned and invested in considerable real estate holdings throughout New York.[8]

None did more than banker Isaac Bronson to make an exact science of the business. Going beyond mere speculation, Bronson employed local businessmen, judges, and politicians to steer him toward the best land. He then resold it to farmers, granting five-year mortgages at 6 percent to those whose financial standing his agents and scrutinized and certified. By the early 1820s Bronson owned or held mortgages on property in over half the counties of the state. His enterprise was so solid that conservative bankers like Prime, Ward & King invested substantial sums with him.[8]

In 1833, Bronson, along with his sons Arthur, Frederic, and Charles Butler, the brother of

U.S. Attorney General, used his vast wealth to make one of the largest land purchases of his day.[5][9] Utilizing capital from the New York Life Insurance and Trust Company, among other banks, they purchased nearly one-third of a million acres of land across eight states, including North Carolina,[2] Indiana, Chicago (which had a population of only 500 at the time) and other parts of Illinois, and the Michigan Territory[8] Bronson was competing against John Jacob Astor, who also acquired a vast real estate portfolio.[10]

Personal life

Portrait of Mrs. Isaac Bronson, circa 1805, by John Trumbull

On August 30, 1789, three months after his last trip to China, he married Anna Olcott (1765–1850), the daughter of Thomas Olcott. They moved to Hartford, then Philadelphia, and eventually in New York City. Together, they had ten children, two of whom died in infancy. Their children included:[1]

Bronson died on May 19, 1838, at

Greenfield Hill.[1]

Residence

In 1796,[5] Bronson purchased the home of Timothy Dwight, called "Verna" in Greenfield Hill. Their country home later became Fairfield Country Day School.[16] He is credited with planting the first dogwood trees along Bronson Road where today there is a yearly Dogwood Festival.[17]

Descendants

Through his daughter Caroline, he was the grandfather of Harriet Bronson Willett (1839–1911), who married Charles Burrall Hoffman (1821–1892),

Maj. Gen. Villiers Hatton, CB (1852–1914), the Commander of British Troops in South China, in 1897.[7][22]

Through his son Frederic, he was the grandfather of

Rensselaerwyck.[25]

References

Notes
  1. ^ a b c d Sibley, Harriet (Bronson) (1917). Bronson Lineage 1636–1917 | Ancestors and Descendants of Captain William Bronson of the Revolutionary War, and Other Ancestral Lines. Dallas, Oregon. Retrieved 16 October 2017.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ^
    University of North Carolina Asheville
    . Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  3. ^ "Obituary". Connecticut Journal. 9 May 1826. p. 3. At Middlebury, on the 15th ult. Captain Isaac Brownson, aged 90.
  4. ^ a b c "The Society Of the Cincinnati in The State of Connecticut | Surg Mate Isaac Bronson 1760–1839". theconnecticutsociety.org. Retrieved 2017-07-10.
  5. ^
    ISBN 9780873955317
    . Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  6. ^ "New York's Oldest". TIME. time.com. 26 March 1934. Archived from the original on July 31, 2009. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Van Rensselaer, Mrs. John King (1897). New Yorkers of the XIX Century. New York: F. Tennyson Neely. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  8. ^ a b c Gates (of Cornell University), Paul Wallace; Carstenen, ed., Vernon (1968). The Public Lands | The Role of the Land Speculator in Western Development. Madison, Wis.: Hibbard. pp. 314–333. Retrieved 17 October 2017. {{cite book}}: |last2= has generic name (help)
  9. ISBN 9781439619469
    . Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  10. ISBN 9780199741205
    . Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  11. ISBN 9780801873416
    . Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  12. ISBN 9781586489908
    . Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  13. ^ Richards, Penny L. (2 February 2014). "The Mordecai Female Academy: 130., 131., 132. The Donaldsons (Eliza, Isabella, and Joanna)". The Mordecai Female Academy. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  14. ISBN 9781584655985
    . Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  15. ^ "Bronson family papers 1790–1875". archives.nypl.org. New York Public Library. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  16. ^ "History". www.fairfieldcountryday.org. Fairfield Country Day School. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
  17. ^ "Bronson Windmill". ghvis.com. Greenfield Hill Improvement Society. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
  18. ^ Greene, Richard Henry; Stiles, Henry Reed; Dwight, Melatiah Everett; Morrison, George Austin; Mott, Hopper Striker; Totten, John Reynolds; Pitman, Harold Minot; Forest, Louis Effingham De; Ditmas, Charles Andrew; Mann, Conklin; Maynard, Arthur S. (1919). The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. p. 39. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  19. ^ Hoffman, Eugene Augustus (1899). Genealogy of the Hoffman family : descendants of Martin Hoffman, with biographical notes . New York : Dodd, Mead & Co. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  20. ^ "MARRIED. Hoffman -- Willett". The New York Times. 17 November 1860. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  21. ISBN 9781588394910. Retrieved 17 October 2017.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  22. ^ Duyckinck, Whitehead Cornell; Cornell, John (1908). The Duyckinck and Allied Families: Being A Record Of The Descendants of Evert Duyckink Who Settled in New Amsterdam, Now New York, in 1638. Tobias A. Wright. p. 86. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  23. ^ "DEATH LIST OF A DAY. Frederic Bronson". The New York Times. 30 March 1900. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
  24. ^ "MRS. ADRIAN ISELIN DIES IN HER SLEEP; Wife of Banking House's Head Is Stricken in Her 81st Year. A SOCIETY CONSERVATIVE Was a Descendant of the King, Duer and Gracie Families, Long Prominent in This City". The New York Times. 5 April 1931. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
  25. Schenectady County Public Library
    . pp. 1814–1821. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
Sources
  • Morrison, Grant. Isaac Bronson and the Search for System in American Capitalism, 1789–1838. New York: Arno Press, 1978
  • Venit, Abraham H. Isaac Bronson: His Banking Theory and the Financial Controversies of the Jacksonian Period. The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Nov. 1945), pp. 201–214

External links

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