Henry Franklin Bronson - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Henry Franklin Bronson was a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

lumber baron known as one of Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

's early entrepreneurs establishing a large lumber mill at Chaudière Falls

Chaudière Falls

The Chaudière Falls are a set of cascades and waterfall in the centre of the Ottawa-Gatineau metropolitan area in Canada where the Ottawa River narrows between a rocky escarpment on both sides of the river. The location is just west of the Chaudière Bridge, northwest of the Canadian War Museum at...

on the Ottawa River. Bronson's efforts helped to convert a fledgling small town into a prosperous city.

He was born in Moreau Township

Moreau, New York

Moreau is a town in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 13,826 at the 2000 census. The town is located in the northeast part of the county, north of Saratoga Springs. Moreau is named after Jean Victor Moreau, a French general, who visited the area just before the town was...

, Saratoga County, New York

Saratoga County, New York

Saratoga County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 219,607. It is part of the Albany-Schenectady-Troy Metropolitan Statistical Area. The county seat is Ballston Spa...

in 1817 and studied at Poultney Academy in Vermont

Vermont

Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...

. Bronson was hired as a clerk in John J. Harris' lumber business; he become a junior partner in 1840. Harris, a friend of Bronson's, had land in northern New York state, and mills on the upper Hudson River lakes. He had been impressed by "the integrity, resolute will, sound constitution and capacity for hard work" of Bronson.

In search of new sources of timber, Bronson visited the Ottawa Valley

Ottawa Valley

The Ottawa Valley is the valley along the boundary between Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec along the Ottawa River. The valley is the transition between the Saint Lawrence Lowlands and the Canadian Shield...

in the summer of 1848. With Bytown

Bytown

Bytown is the former name of Ottawa, Canada's capital city. It was founded on on September 26, 1826, incorporated as a town on January 1, 1850, and superseded by the incorporation of the City of Ottawa on January 1, 1855. The founding was marked by a sod turning, and a letter from Governor General...

's Chaudière Falls

Chaudière Falls

as a potential source for power, and the large amount of timber in the area, he decided "on the spot" that the islands located there would be a good location for a sawmill.

The two went to Bytown in 1852, and after urging the superintendent of the Ottawa River Works, Horace Merrill to recommend that crown-owned "hydaulic lots" at Chaudière be offered to entrepreneurs, the lots became available in September. They bought some land on nearby Victoria Island's north side, paying $200.20 to the Province of Canada

Province of Canada

The Province of Canada, United Province of Canada, or the United Canadas was a British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham in the Report on the Affairs of British North America following the Rebellions of...

, and with it came the right to use the water as an energy source and "to build a flume to propel their mills and carry saw logs to the property for 21 years." They were able to, a short time later, acquire nearby building lots that had been "made available at greatly reduced prices, thanks to a recommendation made to the Canadian government by Ottawa mayor R. W. Scott

Richard William Scott

Sir Richard William Scott, PC, KC was a Canadian politician and cabinet minister.He was born in Prescott, Ontario in 1825. A lawyer by training, Scott was admitted to the bar in 1848 and established a practice in Bytown...

."

The mill was set up at the Chaudière Falls on the Ottawa River

Ottawa River

The Ottawa River is a river in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. For most of its length, it now defines the border between these two provinces.-Geography:...

and they acquired timber limits on the Gatineau

Gatineau River

The Gatineau River is a river in western Quebec, Canada, which rises in lakes north of the Baskatong Reservoir and flows south to join the Ottawa River at the city of Gatineau, Quebec...

, Dumoine

Dumoine River

The Dumoine River is a river in western Quebec with its source in Machin Lake near La Vérendrye Wildlife Reserve. From Dumoine Lake, the river flows almost due south off the Canadian Shield and empties into the Ottawa River, just west of Rapides-des-Joachims, Quebec, or Rolphton, Ontario...

and Madawaska River

Madawaska River (Ontario)

The Madawaska River is a river in Ontario, Canada. The river is long and drains an area of . It originates at Source Lake in the highlands of Algonquin Park at an elevation of and flows east, dropping before emptying into the Ottawa River at Arnprior....

s. The Harris, Bronson and Coleman (later Harris and Bronson) company mainly supplied markets in the northeastern United States. The large plant had "novel iron gates", 74 upright and four circular saws. The Harris and Bronson Company was set up in the 1850s.

Notable is that Bronson's pioneering entrepreneurship preceded many other notables, who also came from the United States, namely Perley & Pattee [Chaudière Falls mill], as well as well as Eddy

Ezra Butler Eddy

Ezra Butler Eddy was a Canadian businessman and political figure.Although born in the United States, Ezra Butler Eddy who was one of Canada's most progressive manufacturers, became one of its most loyal citizens and few men of his time were more devoted to his Sovereigns institutions and more...

, and [Canada's largest sawmill builder] John Rudolphus Booth

John Rudolphus Booth

John Rudolphus Booth was a Canadian lumber and railway baron. He controlled logging rights for large tracts of forest land in central Ontario, and built a railway to extract his logs; and from Ottawa through to Vermont to export lumber and grain to the United States and...

.

Bronson settled at Bytown

Bytown

in 1853. When Harris retired in 1866, wholesale lumber merchant Abijah Weston and Bronson's son Erskine Henry

Erskine Henry Bronson

Erskine Henry Bronson was an American-born Canadian businessman and political figure. He represented the City of Ottawa in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1886 to 1898....

joined the firm. In 1867 the company became known as the Bronsons and Weston Lumber Company. The company operated wholesale outlets in Albany, New York

Albany, New York

Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...

, Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

and Burlington, Vermont

Burlington, Vermont

Burlington is the largest city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the shire town of Chittenden County. Burlington lies south of the U.S.-Canadian border and some south of Montreal....

, acquired cutting rights to redwood forests in California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

and established their own bank.

When the Reciprocity Treaty with the United States ended in 1866, Bronson lobbied for reinstating the treaty; he became a supporter of the Liberal Party

Liberal Party of Canada

The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...

federally and provincially. The Province of Canada treaty with the U.S. was significant for Bronson because it "permitted Canadian planks and boards to enter that country duty-free".

With William Goodhue Perley

William Goodhue Perley

William Goodhue Perley was a businessman and member of the Canadian House of Commons from 1887 to 1890.He was born in Enfield, New Hampshire in 1820. His emigrant ancestor was Allan Perley. During the 1840s, he established a lumber business based on timber from northern New York...

and James Skead

James Skead

James Skead was an Ontario businessman and politician. He was a Conservative member of the Senate of Canada for Rideau division from 1867 to 1881 and from 1881 until his death in 1884.-Biography:...

, Bronson was also a promoter of the Upper Ottawa Steamship Company.

He was the founder of the Ottawa Ladies' College in Conjuncture with the Presbyterian Church of Canada. The college was later sold to the first President H.M Tory and Vice president M.M. MacOdrum of Carleton College in 1942. Carleton College has since become Carleton University. http://arc.library.carleton.ca/collections/browse/ottawa_ladies_college

"Bronsons and Weston Lumber Company" was incorporated, 1888, under c. 103, name was changed to "Bronson Company", 1899, c. 96.

He died at Ottawa in 1889. Erskine Henry continued to manage the company until 1899 when it became a holding company

Holding company

A holding company is a company or firm that owns other companies' outstanding stock. It usually refers to a company which does not produce goods or services itself; rather, its purpose is to own shares of other companies. Holding companies allow the reduction of risk for the owners and can allow...

, the Bronson Company.

"Erskine Henry Bronson and Walter Goodman Bronson carried on the family business after the death of their father in 1899, followed by Frederick Erskine Bronson after the death of Walter Goodman Bronson in 1932. In the sixties, Frederic Bronson donated a large portion of the Bronson Company's land holdings to the National Capital Commission. A few years later, the National Capital Commission expropriated the rest of the company."

Bronson had transformed the falls into an industrial site, and helped to convert a "backwoods village into a prosperous city".

External links

http://arc.library.carleton.ca/collections/browse/ottawa_ladies_college

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