served as a surgeon on George Washington's staff during the Revolutionary War before turning to a career in finance that made him a fortune estimated at his death in 1838 to be $1,500,000 of monied securities. One of his chief investments was the Bridgeport Bank in Connecticut, where he served on the Board of Directors from 1806 to 1832. Because of competition in Manhattan driving down interest rates there, Dr. Bronson began loaning money in more rural places such as Jefferson County, New York, where he could get a higher rate of return. Dr. Bronson engaged his brother Ethel Bronson to sell his investment lands in Jefferson County. Ethel Bronson served as President of the Jefferson County Bank from 1820 through his death in 1825, appointing Orville Hungerford as cashier of the bank beginning in 1820. As a physician turned banker, Dr. Isaac Bronson instructed Hungerford in his capacity as cashier to adhere to stringent banking standards such as "make the bills of the bank always at par in New York [City] by redeeming [there]; another, never to renew a note for a customer, until the original was paid up; and a third, to refuse to discount paper having over ninety days to run." By adhering to this sound money lending regime, at least for a while, Hungerford was able to maintain the bank's high profits, which made it one of the best bank investments in the state. Isaac Bronson ended up making a large profit on his sale of stock in the Jefferson County Bank. In 1824, the Wall Street investment bank Prime, Ward & King, which was headed by Nathaniel Prime, purchased from Bronson half the capital in the Jefferson County Bank. As a financial institution, the Jefferson County Bank accepted promissory notes, a common form of debt that could be passed on to another person or entity for collection. On May 14, 1825, a man by the name of Heath made a promissory note for $150 with interest, which James Wood from Brownville, New York indorsed. In June 1826, the Bank took the matter to court and ended up getting a judgment against Wood in his capacity as a surety. On appeal, Wood argued that Jefferson County Bank was not a proper corporate body and that its cashier Orville Hungerford reached an agreement with Heath to collect security from him if Wood failed to pay. Hungerford made