Background

Brammall Supply Company was founded in 1873 by pioneer tinsmith and hardware dealer Edward Brammall. An English immigrant from Sheffield, England, Brammall moved from Chicago to Benton Harbor in 1869. At around this time, the village of Benton Harbor was in the process of draining the swampland of the floodplain of the St. Joseph River by building a ship canal parallel to the city's present day Main St. The canal project, completed and expanded upon over the span of many years, provided the economic activity that prompted Edward Brammall to establish a fledgling hardware supply business. The canal provided a means of transportation for the fruit farms that had been established in the moderate climate and rich soils of Southwestern Michigan. Over the years, the supply company established by Brammall evolved into a well known purveyor of farm, plumbing and industrial supplies. Brammall Supply survives today as a leading supplier of cutting tools and abrasives to the metal working industries of Southwest Michigan and Northwest Indiana.