Henry Franklin Bronson

Henry Franklin Bronson
Henry Franklin Bronson Source: Library and Archives Canada
Born	February 24, 1817 Moreau Township, Saratoga County, New York, United States
Died	December 7, 1889(1889-12-07) (aged 72) Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Nationality	American-Canadian
Occupation	lumber businessman

Henry Franklin Bronson (February 24, 1817 – December 7, 1889) was an American-Canadian lumber baron known as one of Ottawa's early entrepreneurs, establishing a large lumber mill at Chaudière Falls on the Ottawa River. Bronson's efforts helped to convert a fledgling small town into a prosperous city.

Bronson was born in Moreau Township, Saratoga County, New York in 1817 and studied at Poultney Academy in Vermont. He was hired as a clerk in John J. Harris' lumber business; he became 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 Bronson's "integrity, resolute will, sound constitution and capacity for hard work".

In search of new sources of timber, Bronson visited the Ottawa Valley in the summer of 1848. With Bytown's 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.

Bronson and Harris 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, 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 soon able to 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."

The mill was set up at the Chaudière Falls on the Ottawa River and they acquired timber limits on the Gatineau, Dumoine and Madawaska Rivers. 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.