Oliver Bronson was eldest surviving son of ten children born to Anna Bronson, and Isaac Bronson, a surgeon during the American Revolutionary War who was a successful banker and land speculator credited with co-founding the New York Life Insurance and Trust Company and Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company.
13 Facts About Oliver Bronson
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Oliver Bronson attended Yale University and graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, later a part of Columbia University, in 1818.
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Oliver Bronson's father used his insurance companies to finance the purchase of nearly a third of a million acres in multiple states.
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From 1851 to 1854, Oliver Bronson was the first superintendent of schools in Hudson, New York, and was a shareholder in the Hudson Gas Company.
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Oliver Bronson was a most excellent physician and a most excellent man.
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Oliver Bronson was a serious man, taking a stern view of life in accordance with his strict Presbyterian belief.
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In November 1868, during Reconstruction following the end of the US Civil War, Oliver Bronson was appointed the first superintendent of the new St Johns County School System in St Johns County, Florida and by March 1869, the school board was appointed.
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In 1838, Oliver Bronson purchased the former home and estate of Samuel Plumb in Hudson, New York, from Robert Frary.
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Oliver Bronson hired architect Alexander Jackson Davis to updated and expand the Federal-style villa that was built on a bluff overlooking the Hudson River's South bay, and Andrew Jackson Downing to do the landscaping and gardens.
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In 1849, Oliver Bronson acquired an additional 29 acres south of his original purchase, reuniting the original estate land that was excluded in his first purchase, bringing the estate up to 50 acres.
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Oliver Bronson later sold the house in 1853 to Frederick Fitch Folger, and returned to Connecticut.
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On May 15,1833, Oliver Bronson was married to Joanna Donaldson at the Murray Street Presbyterian Church in New York.
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Oliver Bronson died on June 21,1875, in Richfield Springs in Otsego County, New York.