Brain Lumber’s owner has deep roots to one of Springfield’s oldest businesses

“We want to stay an old-school hardware and lumber store,” he said.

Cornelison started working there when he was just 14. He remembers walking into the store then and admiring the high sheen a janitor named Larry could bring to the linoleum floors. He coveted the mounted moose head that hung in the second-floor office area. Brain Lumber became a second home when he was a teen.

In recent years as the Brain family stepped away from the business their relatives founded in 1868, and as competition from big-box stores increased, the lumber shop struggled.

In 2021, Cornelison had retired from careers as a general contractor, project manager and real estate investor. He saw a notice on Facebook that Brain Lumber needed workers to help clean up the lumberyard. He signed on and brought along some help.

In a passing conversation, he learned that the shareholders of the business might be interested in selling. He extended an offer and acquired a majority of shares, assuming ownership on his birthday in 2021.

Now, he owns the moose head, the linoleum floor and his teenage home away from home.

Steep history

The Brain family had arrived in American in 1829 after a six-week voyage from their home in Straffordshire, England.

After landing in Philadelphia, George Brain engaged in a conversation with Jeremiah Warder, who persuaded the family to move to Ohio, to Springfield, where Warder had recently purchased land.

“I have understood from my father that they came from Philadelphia to Buffalo, New York, by canal, by boat from there to Sandusky, then by wagon to Springfield,” wrote George’s son Willard, in a 12-page, neatly typed historical account detailed on a manual typewriter.

Upon arriving in Springfield, Williard reported they bought “two tracts of land, one parcel at $6 per acre and the other, bordering High Street, at $12 per acre.”

In addition to farming, the family resumed a skill they’d brought with them from England — the manufacture of malt to be sold to brew beer. Discovering that in this new world, not every family engaged in brewing their own beer, the Brains equipped themselves for the manufacture of keg beer and establishment of a brewery.

They sold their beer from Springfield south to Cincinnati. The family-owned brewery was eventually sold after a George expressed concern and the family reached consensus “the business was bringing him in touch with the strata of society with which they did not care to mingle.”

The farm again became the primary source of support for the family.

“It contained about two hundred and seventy acres, of which twenty-five acres were virgin timber,” according to Williard’s account.

Perhaps all those trees were the genesis of the lumber business, although Willard does not include this detail in his account.

Nevertheless, the Springfield lumberyard dates back to a founding in 1868 when brothers William and George Brain joined with George Simpson and another man to establish what became Brain-Simpson Lumber. In 1889 it became George Brain & Sons, and finally the Brain Lumber Company.

In 1889-90, the business moved to East Street at Harrison Street, where it has since remained. In 1903 the Brain Lumber Company was incorporated.

It was nearly lost in a massive fire in 1925 but came back strong.

Future plans

Almost a century later, Cornelison is working to ensure the company’s future.

“There are no other lumber yards in this end of town,” he said, emphasizing the desire to keep it old-school hardware and lumber. “We won’t be selling candy and flowers and home décor like the big box stores.”

He said Brain offers premium lumber, good customer service and a 15% contractor discount, plus free delivery on any purchase over $1,000 anywhere in Clark County.

Cornelison noted that having already survived all this time, Brain Lumber feels like a safe bet to him.

“I believe we can triple our current business over the next two years. We want to work with local contractors and we want to continue to offer services not available at the big stores,” he said.

That includes a sash and door department and repairs for wooden doors and windows, plus kitchen and bath remodeling services.

“We just need to let people know we’re here,” Cornelison said.

To that end, the business is celebrating its 154th birthday Nov. 2-4, inviting the public to visit the historical location for a chance to win a door prize each day, enjoy gifts while supplies last, partake in punch and cupcakes and see how luminous the 100-year-old linoleum floor is once again.