Isaac Bronson

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) and Silas Bronson (1788-1867). His father was a farmer who was also a member of the Connecticut General Assembly.

His paternal grandparents were Isaac Bronson (1707–1799){{cite news|title=Obituary|work=Connecticut Journal|date=9 May 1826|page=3|quote=At Middlebury, on the 15th ult. Captain Isaac Brownson, aged 90.}} and Eunice (nee Richards) Bronson (1716–1749).

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. 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.{{Cite web|url=http://theconnecticutsociety.org/bronsonbrunson-isaac/|title=The Society Of the Cincinnati in The State of Connecticut {{!}} Surg Mate Isaac Bronson 1760–1839|website=theconnecticutsociety.org|language=en|access-date=2017-07-10}}

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 Alexander Hamilton, who had become the first 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.

In 1807, he founded the Bridgeport Bank in Connecticut, for which he was the largest shareholder, a director and president from 1807 to 1832. In 1830, he co-founded the New York Life Insurance and Trust Company (which merged with the Bank of New York in 1922){{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,747266-1,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090731232524/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,747266-1,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 31, 2009 |title=New York's Oldest |magazine=TIME |access-date=14 January 2015| date=26 March 1934}} and Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company.{{cite book|last1=Van Rensselaer|first1=Mrs. John King|title=New Yorkers of the XIX Century|date=1897|publisher=F. Tennyson Neely|location=New York|url=https://archive.org/details/newyorkersofxixc00vanr|accessdate=17 October 2017}}

By 1828, he was one of the wealthiest men in New York City, with assets of more than $250,000.{{cite web|title=Isaac Bronson (1760–1838)|url=http://toto.lib.unca.edu/findingaids/mss/speculation_lands/biographies/bronson_isaac.htm|website=toto.lib.unca.edu|publisher=University of North Carolina Asheville|accessdate=17 October 2017}} Bronson also owned and invested in considerable real estate holdings throughout New York.

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.

In 1833, Bronson, along with his sons Arthur, Frederic, and Charles Butler, the brother of Benjamin Franklin Butler the U.S. Attorney General, used his vast wealth to make one of the largest land purchases of his day.{{cite book|last1=Haeger|first1=John D.|title=The Investment Frontier: New York Businessmen and the Economic Development of the Old Northwest|date=1981|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=9780873955317|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Eiz3fb1mBS0C&pg=PA238|accessdate=17 October 2017|language=en}}{{cite book|last1=Cole|first1=J. Timothy|title=Chimney Rock Park and Hickory Nut Gorge|date=2008|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=9781439619469|page=53|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h6gPZERUSTAC&pg=PT53|accessdate=17 October 2017|language=en}} 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, Indiana, Chicago (which had a population of only 500 at the time) and other parts of Illinois, Wisconsin, and the Michigan Territory{{cite book|last1=Gates (of Cornell University)|first1=Paul Wallace|last2=Carstenen, ed.|first2=Vernon|title=The Public Lands {{!}} The Role of the Land Speculator in Western Development|date=1968|publisher=Hibbard|location=Madison, Wis.|pages=314–333|url=https://journals.psu.edu/pmhb/article/viewFile/29804/29559|accessdate=17 October 2017}} Bronson was competing against John Jacob Astor, who also acquired a vast real estate portfolio.{{cite book|last1=Burrows|first1=Edwin G.|last2=Wallace|first2=Mike|title=Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898|date=1998|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199741205|page=570|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xF4NDALYWSAC&pg=PA570|accessdate=17 October 2017|language=en}}

File:Portrait of Mrs. Isaac Bronson (nee Anna Olcott).jpg]]

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:{{cite book|last1=Sibley|first1=Harriet (Bronson)|title=Bronson Lineage 1636–1917 {{!}} Ancestors and Descendants of Captain William Bronson of the Revolutionary War, and Other Ancestral Lines|date=1917|location=Dallas, Oregon|url=https://archive.org/stream/bronsonlineage1600sibl/bronsonlineage1600sibl_djvu.txt|accessdate=16 October 2017}}

• Oliver Bronson, who died in infancy
• Maria Bronson, who also died in infancy
• Maria Bronson (1793–1851), who married Col. James Boyles Murray (1789–1866),{{cite book|last1=Harris|first1=Luther S.|title=Around Washington Square: An Illustrated History of Greenwich Village|date=2003|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=9780801873416|pages=12–13|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K8aMN50YOvkC&pg=PA12|accessdate=17 October 2017|language=en}} the son of wealthy English born merchant John Murray and grandson of Sir James Murray, Lord Philiphaugh.{{cite book|last1=Greider|first1=Katharine|title=The Archaeology of Home: An Epic Set on a Thousand Square Feet of the Lower East Side|date=2011|publisher=PublicAffairs|isbn=9781586489908|page=263|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aX4OE0TEJNoC&pg=PT263|accessdate=17 October 2017|language=en}}
• Harriet Bronson (1798–1886)
• Caroline Bronson (1798–1853), who married Dr. Marinus Willett (1801–1840), son of Marinus Willett
• Oliver Bronson (1799–1875), also a doctor who married Joanna Donaldson (1806–1876) in 1833.{{cite web|last1=Richards|first1=Penny L.|title=The Mordecai Female Academy: 130., 131., 132. The Donaldsons (Eliza, Isabella, and Joanna)|url=http://mordecaischool.blogspot.com/2014/02/130-131-132-donaldsons-eliza-isabella.html|website=The Mordecai Female Academy|accessdate=17 October 2017|date=2 February 2014}}{{cite book|last1=Rinaldi|first1=Thomas E.|last2=Yasinsac|first2=Rob|title=Hudson Valley Ruins: Forgotten Landmarks of an American Landscape|date=2006|publisher=UPNE|isbn=9781584655985|page=92|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8bJ6ai_KRL0C&pg=PA92|accessdate=17 October 2017|language=en}}
• Arthur Bronson (1801–1844),{{cite web|title=Bronson family papers 1790–1875|url=http://archives.nypl.org/mss/400|website=archives.nypl.org|publisher=New York Public Library|accessdate=17 October 2017|language=en}} who married Ann Eliza Bailey (d. 1878), a daughter of Theodorus Bailey, a United States Senator from New York.
• Frederic Bronson Sr. (1802–1868), who married Charlotte Brinckerhoff (1818–1861), a granddaughter and heir of Robert Troup, in 1838.
• Mary Bronson (b. 1806)
• Ann Bronson (b. 1810)

Bronson died on May 19, 1838, at Greenfield Hill.

In 1796, Bronson purchased the home of Timothy Dwight, called "Verna" in Greenfield Hill. Their country home later became Fairfield Country Day School.{{cite web|title=History|url=https://www.fairfieldcountryday.org/page/about-fcds/history|website=www.fairfieldcountryday.org|publisher=Fairfield Country Day School|accessdate=16 October 2017|language=en}} He is credited with planting the first dogwood trees along Bronson Road where today there is a yearly Dogwood Festival.{{cite web|title=Bronson Windmill|url=https://www.ghvis.com/bronson-windmill/|website=ghvis.com|publisher=Greenfield Hill Improvement Society|accessdate=16 October 2017}}

Through his daughter Caroline, he was the grandfather of Harriet Bronson Willett (1839–1911), who married Charles Burrall Hoffman (1821–1892),{{cite book|last1=Greene|first1=Richard Henry|last2=Stiles|first2=Henry Reed|last3=Dwight|first3=Melatiah Everett|last4=Morrison|first4=George Austin|last5=Mott|first5=Hopper Striker|last6=Totten|first6=John Reynolds|last7=Pitman|first7=Harold Minot|last8=Forest|first8=Louis Effingham De|last9=Ditmas|first9=Charles Andrew|last10=Mann|first10=Conklin|last11=Maynard|first11=Arthur S.|title=The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record|date=1919|publisher=New York Genealogical and Biographical Society|url=https://archive.org/details/newyorkgenealogiv50gree|page=[https://archive.org/details/newyorkgenealogiv50gree/page/39 39]|accessdate=17 October 2017|language=en}} the son of Ogden Hoffman and brother of Ogden Hoffman, Jr., in 1860.{{cite book|last1=Hoffman|first1=Eugene Augustus|title=Genealogy of the Hoffman family : descendants of Martin Hoffman, with biographical notes ..|date=1899|publisher=New York : Dodd, Mead & Co.|url=https://archive.org/details/genealogyofhoffm00hoff|accessdate=22 February 2017}}{{cite news|title=MARRIED. Hoffman -- Willett|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1860/11/17/news/married.html|accessdate=17 October 2017|work=The New York Times|date=17 November 1860}} Their daughter, Emily Burrall Hoffman (1861–1942),{{cite book|last1=Carver|first1=Wees, Beth|last2=Higgins|first2=Harvey, Medill|title=Early American Silver in The Metropolitan Museum of Art|date=2013|publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art|isbn=9781588394910|page=102|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BQaHAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA102|accessdate=17 October 2017|language=en}} married Maj. Gen. Villiers Hatton, CB (1852–1914), the Commander of British Troops in South China, in 1897.{{cite book|last1=Duyckinck|first1=Whitehead Cornell|last2=Cornell|first2=John|title=The Duyckinck and Allied Families: Being A Record Of The Descendants of Evert Duyckink Who Settled in New Amsterdam, Now New York, in 1638|date=1908|publisher=Tobias A. Wright|page=[https://archive.org/details/duyckinckandall00corngoog/page/n120 86]|url=https://archive.org/details/duyckinckandall00corngoog|accessdate=17 October 2017|language=en}}

Through his son Frederic, he was the grandfather of Frederic Bronson (1851–1900),{{cite news|title=DEATH LIST OF A DAY. Frederic Bronson|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A00E2DB1339E733A25753C3A9659C946197D6CF&legacy=true|accessdate=16 October 2017|work=The New York Times|date=30 March 1900}} who married Sarah Gracie King (1850–1931).{{cite news|title=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.|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A05E3DC143BE433A25756C0A9629C946094D6CF&legacy=true|accessdate=16 October 2017|work=The New York Times|date=5 April 1931}} She was the daughter of Archibald Gracie King and Elizabeth Denning (née Duer) King, and the granddaughter of U.S. Representative James Gore King and William Alexander Duer. She was also the sister of May Denning King, who married John King Van Rensselaer, son of Henry Bell Van Rensselaer and grandson of Stephen Van Rensselaer III, the patroon of Rensselaerwyck.{{cite web|last1=Sullivan|first1=Robert G.|title=Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs: Van Rensselaer Vol. IV|url=http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/families/hmgfm/vanrensselaer-3.html|website=www.schenectadyhistory.org|publisher=Schenectady County Public Library|accessdate=6 December 2016|pages=1814–1821|date=1911}}

;Notes

{{Reflist|30em}}

;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

• {{findagrave|85212237}}
• [http://archives.nypl.org/mss/400 Bronson family papers 1790-1875] at the New York Public Library

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Category:1760 births

Category:1838 deaths

Category:American surgeons

Category:People of Connecticut in the American Revolution

Category:People from Middlebury, Connecticut

Category:People from Fairfield, Connecticut

Category:Physicians in the American Revolution

Category:People from colonial Connecticut

Category:American bankers