[p. 661] who owns 112½ acres of valuable land in the northern part of Little Beaver Township, which he devotes to general farming, berry-growing and stockraising, is one of the substantial men of this section. He was born July 5, 1865, in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and is a son of Samuel and Sarah Ellen (Russell) Bronson.
Samuel Bronson, father of John, was born in Belle Vernon, now in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and was a son of Abner Bronson, who was one of the first settlers in that vicinity. He came to that section from Venice Center, New York, and Indians still had their home in the wild place where he located. He was a lime-burner, and like many other men in that dangerous business, was accidentally smothered to death by the fumes in one of the kilns. He married Eliza McClain and they had six children: Amon, Samuel, William, Sarah, Madison and Anna.
When Samuel Bronson was born, on May 11, 1835, Belle Vernon was nothing but a village, but farming lands surrounded it and coal fields were soon opened up and as a boy he worked in both. For five continuous years he was employed by Capt. John Gilmar on the Monongahela, Grey Fox, and Fox steamboats, which plied on the Ohio, Monongahela and Mississippi Rivers. When the Civil War broke out, Mr. Bronson was with one of these vessels in the harbor at New Orleans, but he was able to return unmolested to the North and then engaged in farming in Westmoreland County, which he continued until he accompanied his son, John Bronson, to Lawrence County. On February 19, 1862, he was married to Sarah Ellen Russell, a daughter of Samuel and Hannah (Shadwick) Russell. Samuel Russell came from Ireland and reached America as a stowaway on a ship. Mr. and Mrs. Bronson had seven children, namely: Robert, who died in infancy; John; Harry Franklin, deceased; Della, deceased; Mary Jane and Anna Belle, twins, the former of whom married J. O. Davenport; and Eliza.
John Bronson may surely claim to have lived an industrious life for he was only six years old when he began to use his puny strength as a wage earner in the coal mines. As soon as he was able he became a user of the coal pick and off and on he continued work in the mines for a period of twenty-six years, and also, from the age of twenty-one, has been engaged more or less in farming. In 1903, he bought his present farm and the larger number of the buildings now standing, from Edward Underwood and the family will always remember the February day on which they came to Lawrence County, on account of the worst blizzard of the winter then prevailing. Mr. Bronson raises many berries for market, does general farming and is much interested in thoroughbred stock, particularly Jersey cattle and Berkshire hogs. He owns the fine racing mare, Nellie Trimble, which has a pacing record of 2:40, and this animal has had two colts.
In politics, Mr. Bronson is a Democrat. He belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church at Wampum.
20th Century History of New Castle and Lawrence County Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens Hon. Aaron L. Hazen Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, Chicago, Ill., 1908
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