J. M. Brunswick

John Moses Brunswick (October 6, 1819 – July 25, 1886) was the founder of the J.M. Brunswick Manufacturing Company, one of the enterprises that merged to form today's Brunswick Corporation.

Brunswick was a Jewish immigrant from Bremgarten, Switzerland. He came to the United States in 1834 and initially worked as an errand boy in New York City. He then moved to Philadelphia to work as an apprentice to a carriage-maker, and later to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania where he married and lived before moving to Cincinnati where he worked the first 2 years as a steward on an old river steamer.

The J.M. Brunswick Manufacturing Company opened for business in 1845, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Originally, Brunswick intended his company to be mainly in the business of making carriages, but soon after opening his machine shop, he became fascinated with billiards and decided that making billiard tables would be more lucrative.