Bronson Southwick was born around 1845 in New York to William Southwick. His father was a lumber inspector who owned $2,500 of real estate and $1,500 of personal property by 1860. The family eventually moved to Saginaw, Michigan, and by 1867, he and his father were running a store that sold “tobacco, cigars and leather belting.” By 1900, he was working as a clerk in Rawlins, Wyoming. He died sometime after 1900.