Grand Ledge Chair Companies

Furniture Manufacturing can be traced back to the earliest roots of Grand Ledge. Edmund Lampson, the first settler, was trained as a chair maker. He operated a saw mill that also made furniture. George Bull was also a local chair maker in the 1860s. In 1872 Michael McMullen ran a furniture and cabinet shop. The West Brothers had a furniture factory here by 1881.

Several other companies produced furniture here, but the two largest and most renowned were the Grand Ledge Chair Company and the Crawford Chair Company.

• Grand Ledge Chair Company – 1883-1981
• Crawford Chair Company – 1902-1929
• Jones-Hoerner-Guest Company – 1929-1931
• Horener Chair Company – 1931-c1943
• Hixon, Tinkham and Company – circa 1880
• C.E Waldo – circa 1880
  Manufaturer of extension tables
• Grand Ledge Table Company – 1902-1906
  Merged with Grand Ledge Chair Company
• Grand Ledge Furniture Company – 1919-1938
• Grand Ledge Rush Seat Manufacturing Company – circa 1920s
• Grand Ledge Industries – circa 1945
• Grand Rapids Bedroom Furniture Company – 1924-1928
  Manufacturing process located in Grand Ledge
• Hooker Upholstery – 1948-1972
  Both upholstery and furniture

Other Grand Ledge Connections:

• Michigan Chair Company – 1890-1938, Grand Rapids
  Formed as the Grand Rapids plant of the Grand Ledge Chair Company, later spun off as a separate company
• Century Furniture Company – 1900-1942, Grand Rapids
  Founded by Grand Ledge native David Brown, former employee of the Grand Ledge Chair Co.

 

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Crawford Chair Company

Edward Crawford, one of the founders of the Grand Ledge Chair Co, left the Michigan Chair Co. and returned to Grand Ledge in 1902 to start the Crawford Chair Company. The company built a new five-story factory with a distinctive eight-story tower. An account at the time noted:

“The Crawford Chair Company has this year erected at Grand Ledge a fine building of cream-white brick, 60 by 160 feet square, five stories in height above the basement, and surmounted by a cupola. It has but recently begun work; will make a specialty of dining tables, and when running at its full capacity, expects to employ two hundred hands.”

The company changed hands in 1931 to become the Hoerner Chair Company. The factory burned down in 1943.