The Iroquoian-speaking Attawandaron, known in English as the
Neutral Nation, lived in the Grand River valley area before the 17th century; their main village and seat of the chief,
Kandoucho, was identified by 19th-century historians as having been located on the
Grand River where present-day Brantford developed. This community, like the rest of their settlements, was destroyed when the Iroquois declared war in 1650 over the fur trade and exterminated the Neutral nation. In 1784, Captain
Joseph Brant and the
Mohawk people of the Iroquois Confederacy left New York State for Canada. As a reward for their loyalty to the
British Crown, they were given a large land grant, referred to as the
Haldimand Tract, on the Grand River. The original Mohawk settlement was on the south edge of the present-day city at a location favourable for landing canoes. Brant's crossing (or
fording) of the river gave the original name to the area: Brant's ford The
Glebe Farm Indian Reserve exists at the original site today. The area began to grow from a small settlement in the 1820s as the Hamilton and London Road was improved. By the 1830s, Brantford became a stop on the
Underground Railroad, and a sizable number of
runaway African-Americans settled in the town. From the 1830s to the 1860s – several hundred people of African descent settled in the area around Murray Street, and in
Cainsville. In Brantford, they established their own school and church, now known as the
S.R. Drake Memorial Church. In 1846, it is estimated 2,000 residents lived in the city's core while 5,199 lived in the outlying rural areas. There were eight churches in Brantford at this time – Episcopal, Presbyterian, Catholic, two Methodist, Baptist, Congregational, and one for the African-Canadian residents. The population increased after 1848 when river navigation to Brantford was opened and again in 1854 with the arrival of the railway to Brantford. Because of the ease of navigation from new roads and the Grand River, several manufacturing companies could be found in the town by 1869. Several major farm implement manufacturers, starting with Cockshutt and Harris, opened for business in the 1870s. The history of the Brantford region from 1793 to 1920 is described at length in the book
At The Forks of The Grand. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Canadian government encouraged the education of First Nations children at
residential schools, which were intended to teach them English and European-Canadian ways and assimilate them into the majority cultures. Such institutions in or near Brantford included the Thomas Indian School,
Mohawk Institute Residential School (also known as Mohawk Manual Labour School and Mush Hole Indian Residential School), and the Haudenosaunee boarding school. Decades later and particularly since the late 20th century, numerous scholarly and artistic works have explored the detrimental effects of the schools in destroying Native cultures. Examples include Ronald James Douglas' graduate thesis titled
Documenting Ethnic Cleansing in North America: Creating Unseen Tears, and the Legacy of Hope Foundation's online media collection: "Where are the Children? Healing the Legacy of the Residential Schools". In June 1945, Brantford became the first city in Canada to fluoridate its water supply. Brantford generated controversy in 2010 when its city council expropriated and demolished 41 historic downtown buildings on the south side of its main street, Colborne Street. The buildings constituted one of the longest blocks of pre-Confederation architecture in Canada and included one of Ontario's first grocery stores and an early 1890s office of the
Bell Telephone Company of Canada. The decision was widely criticized by Ontario's heritage preservation community, however, the city argued it was needed for downtown renewal.
Historical plaques and memorials Plaques and monuments erected by the provincial and federal governments provide additional glimpses into the early history of the area around Brantford. The famed Mohawk Chief
Joseph Brant (Thayendanega) led his people from the Mohawk Valley of New York State to Upper Canada after being allied with the British during the
American Revolution, where they lost their land holdings. A group of 400 settled in 1788 on the Grand River at Mohawk Village which would later become Brantford. The
Mohawk Chapel, built by the British Crown in 1785 for the
Mohawk and Iroquois people (Six Nations of the Grand River), was dedicated in 1788 as a reminder of the original agreements made with the British during the
American Revolution. Chief
John Brant (Mohawk leader) (Ahyonwaeghs) was one of the sons of Joseph Brant. He fought with the British during the
War of 1812 and later worked to improve the welfare of the First Nations. He was involved in building schools and improving the welfare of his people. Brant initiated the opening of schools and, from 1828, served as the first native Superintendent of the Six Nations. The stone and brick Brant County Courthouse was built on land purchased from the Six Nations in 1852. The structure housed courtrooms, county offices, a law library and a jail. During additions in the 1880s, the Greek Revival style, with Doric columns, was retained. and later absorbed into Brantford.) Then called Melville House, it is now a museum, the
Bell Homestead National Historic Site. This was the site of the invention of the telephone in 1874 and ongoing trials in 1876. The
Bell Memorial, also known as the Bell Monument, was commissioned to commemorate Bell's
invention of the telephone in Brantford; it is also one of the
National Historic Sites of Canada.
Invention of the telephone , commemorating the invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell Some articles suggest that the telephone was invented in
Boston, where Alexander Graham Bell did a great deal of work on the development of the device. However, Bell confirmed Brantford as the birthplace of the device in a 1906 speech: "the telephone problem was solved, and it was solved at my father's home". At the unveiling of the
Bell Memorial on 24 October 1917, Bell reminded the attendees that "Brantford is right in claiming the invention of the telephone here... [which was] conceived in Brantford in 1874 and born in Boston in 1875" and that "the first transmission to a distance was made between Brantford and
Paris" (on 3 August 1876). As well, the second successful voice transmission (over a distance of 6 km; 4 miles) was also made in the area, on 4 August 1876, between the telegraph office in Brantford, Ontario and Bell's father's homestead over makeshift wires. Canada's first telephone factory, created by
James Cowherd, was located in Brantford and operated from about 1879 until Cowherd's death in 1881. The first telephone business office which opened in 1877, not far from the Bell Homestead, was located in what is now Brantford. The combination of events has led to Brantford calling itself "The Telephone City". == Law and government ==