Harris, a friend of Bronson's, had land in northern New York state, and mills on the upper Hudson River lakes.

[1] 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.

[2] Bronson's pioneering entrepreneurship preceded many other notables, who also came from the United States, namely Perley and Pattee [Chaudière Falls mill], as well as Eddy, and Canada's largest sawmill builder, John Rudolphus Booth.

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

The company operated wholesale outlets in Albany, New York, Boston and Burlington, Vermont, acquired cutting rights to redwood forests in California and established their own bank.

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

[1] With William Goodhue Perley and James Skead, Bronson was also a promoter of the Upper Ottawa Steamship Company.