| Dr. Oliver Bronson |
| Dr. Oliver Bronson was the first school Superintendent of the St. Johns County School system. The facts surrounding his entry into St. Johns County are still a mystery but in Reconstruction Florida a unique and important person came to set-up the new school system. Buckingham Smith or Sarah Mather may have been the instigators of bringing him here, both had pre-Civil War contacts with him. Dr. Bronson was the son of Isaac Bronson (1760-1838) and Anna Olcott Bronson. Anna, born 1765; married, August 30, 1769, Isaac Bronson, of Bridgeport, Conn. Isaac Bronson was one of the wealthiest men in New York City. In 1828 his assets were over $250,000 (a very handsome sum in 1828 currency). Isaac was a surgeon in the 2nd Regiment of Light Dragoons in the Revolutionary War but after the war Isaac abondoned medicine and traveled to Europe and India. He married Anna Olcott in 1796 and had ten children. Isaac founded the New York and Ohio Life Insurance and Trust companies and was the director and president of the Bridgeport Bank in Connecticut. Using the funds of the insurance companies he purchased a third of a million acres across multiple states. His sons Arthur (January 14th 1801- November 19th, 1844), Frederic (1802-1868) and Oliver (1799-1875) aided Isaac in the land speculation business. His daughter Ann died in July, 1840 in Utica New York. Harriet lived from 1796- 1835 and Mary from 1806-1861. Arthur married Anna Eliza Bailey, daughter of General Theodorus Bailey of New York, on November 20, 1823. They had three children. Arthur helped create both the New York and Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Companies. Arthur and his father, Isaac, co-wrote the charters for these two companies along with securing the approvals from both the state of Ohio and New York legislatures. From around 1815-1816 Oliver attended Yale University finished to graduate in 1818. In 1831 he toured France stayed in Paris at Hotels Des Princes & De'Europe Meubles. He would return to Europe in 1838, 1842 and 1854. He owned stock in the New York and Harlem Railroad, Indianapolis and Belle Fontaine Rail Road, Madison and Indianapolis, Hudson River Rail Road, Galeua and Chicago Union, Delaware and Hudson Canal Co, Hudson and Berkshire Bond, Central Ohio Rail Road, Hudson Gas Company, Hudson Iron Company, Pennsylvania Coal Company, Panama Rail Road Stock, Michigan Central Rail Road, New York Central Stock and bonds, New York and Erie Bonds, New York Trust and Life and Ohio Trust stock. Dr. Bronson would marry Jonanna Donaldson Bronson (1806-76) on May 15, 1833 at the Murray Street Presbyterian Church. Joanna was described by her niece Isabel Bronson as "a beauty in her youth---Black waving hair, beautiful grey eyes and much color of complexion---very gay and very entertaining. She became very deaf (in her old age) but was so agreeable that everyone sought her society." Her picture is in the collection of Richard Hampton Jenrette. He gave money to the Monticello Female Seminary in Illinois. His wife would give money to the Ledies Peon Fund for its endowment. He also gave money to the American Tract Society, Asylum for Respectable Aged Indigent Females, Foreign Evangelical Society, American Home Missionary Society. Isabel Donaldson Bronson described Dr. Oliver Bronson as "a cultivated, intelligent man, well-educated in his profession both in America & in Paris. His very delicate health obliged him to early give up active practice, but to the end of his kind and charitable life he ministered to the poor and lonely. He was a most excellent physician and a most excellent man.....He was a serious man, taking a stern view of life in accorance with his strict Presbyterian belief." Dr. Oliver Bronson's Hudson New York house was recently made a national landmark. It will soon be open to the public run by Historic Hudson, Inc. The Plumb-Bronson House is a Federal-style villa that was built for Samuel Plum on a bluff overlooking the Hudson's South bay. The house and surrounding landscape is athe subject of a watercolor by William Guy Wall completed in 1819 on display in the New York Historical Society. Dr. Bronson purchased the home in 1838 and hired Alexander Jackson Davis to refit the house. The house was made in a Hudson River "bracketed" style (part of the Picturesque movement) and completed in 1849 with an Italianate style river facade, a three-story bracket tower, semi-octagonal rooms, bays and an ornamental veranda. He owned a pew at the Hudson Presbyterian Church where he taught a catechism class In his 1852 balance sheet he had $176,530.05. He was well dressed with his gold spectacles. In the 1850s he served as the first superintendent of City of Hudson, New York schools. He resigned that position in 1854 with the following: Gentleman Permit me to tender to you my resignation of the the office of superintendent of the District schools of this city and at the same time to avail myself of the opportunity of expressing my grateful acknowledgement in havein... kind and cordial in... which the Superintendent have always experienced from your honorable body in all their efforts to promote the welfare of the school's committee to their charges. Very Respectfully, O Bronson Dr. Bronson was appointed first superintendent of the new St. Johns County school system in November of 1868. The school board was appointed by March 1869 (two more Presbyterians: George Burt and Dr. N. D. Benedict) Children Isaac Bronson, (born 19 March 1835) a lawyer, died at Aiken S. C. on March 28th 1872. He was 37 years old. He graduated Williams College in 1856. He had married Harriet Whitney Phoenix, in St. Paul's Chapel, New York, 1 March 1859, by Rev. Frederick Ogilby, D. D., Prot. Epis. Harriet died of diphtheria, 22 Aug. 1864, at Baden-Baden, Germany, without children; and was buried in the Whitney chapel, Greenwood Cemetery. By 1883 Willett Bronson (born August 23, 1839) (Dr. Bronson's son) went bankrupt in New York after buying up-town lots and having houses built on them. He was married to Margaret O'F. Brown on Nov 16, 1871. The resources for his business were from the estate of his father. Willett was a lawyer. He would die on May 28, 1917 in a New York sanitatium. Oliver Bronson, Jr., a St. Johns County Commissioner during Reconstruction would move back to New York and practice law. He was born in New York in 1837 and was a graduate of Williams College and Harvard Law School. His wife was Julia Frances Colt Bronson. They were married in Trinity Church by Rev Smedes on Thursday, June 2, 1870. He died on June 29, 1918 leaving a son Francis P. Bronson. Julia Frances Colt lived in St. Augustine at the Fatio House. They lived in the house across the street in what today is the bed and breakfast - Casa de Solana. Dr. Oliver Bronson Sr. Documents: 1870 School Report 1873 School Report 1872 Original Letter with Signature |