Isaac Bronson (1760-1838)

He was born at Middlebury, Connecticut. He trained as a surgeon under Dr. Lemuel Hopkins and during the Revolutionary War became Senior Surgeon to the 2nd Regiment of Light Dragoons under the command of General George Washington, and afterwards a Member of the Society of the Cincinnati. Following the war, he abandoned medicine and travelled in Europe and India before returning to America and establishing himself in New York where he speculated in securities.

He co-founded both the New York and Ohio Life Insurance & Trust Companies and was the founding President of the Bridgeport Bank in Connecticut (where he kept his summer home) from the years 1807 to 1832. Aside from investing in banking, Bronson with two of his sons (Arthur and Frederic) and Charles Butler purchased nearly a third of a million acres across several states. By 1828, his personal fortune was estimated to be in excess of $250,000, making him one of the ten wealthiest men in New York. He lived between Lower Broadway in New York City and Verna near Southport in Connecticut, driving a carriage with his coat-of-arms emblazoned on the side. In 1789, he married Anna Olcott and they had ten children, seven of whom (listed above) lived to adulthood.