BRAINERD, a city and the county-seat of Crow Wing county, Minnesota, U.S.A., on the E. bank of the Mississippi river, about 127 m. N.W. of Minneapolis. Pop. (1890) 5703; (1900) 7524, of whom 2193 were foreign-born; (1905) 8133; (1910) 8526. It is served by the Minnesota & International and the Northern Pacific railways. The latter maintains here large car and repair shops, and a sanatorium for its employees. There are also the Sisters of St Joseph hospital, a county court house, a public library and a Y.M.C.A. building. A dam across the Mississippi provides water power (about 60,000 H.P.) which is utilized extensively for manufacturing purposes. Lumbering is an important industry, and there are saw mills and planing mills, and an extensive creosote plant for treating railway ties and timber. There are also flour mills, paper and pulp mills, cigar factories, a brewery, a large foundry and a grain elevator. In 1906 large quantities of iron ore were discovered in the vicinity, the new range, the Cuyuna, running through the city from north-east to south-west. Brainerd, named in honour of David Brainerd, was settled in 1870, and chartered as a city in 1883.
BRAINTREE, a market town in the Maldon parliamentary division of Essex, England; 45 m. N.E. of London by a branch line from Witham of the Great Eastern railway. Pop. of urban district, 5330. The parish church of St Michael is a fine edifice of Early English work with later additions. A corn exchange, mechanics’ institute and public hall may also be mentioned. The bishops of London had formerly a palace in the town, but there are no remains of the building. The manufactures of silk and crape have superseded that of woollen cloth, which was introduced by the Flemings who fled to England to escape the persecution of the duke of Alva. Matting and brushes are also made. On the north lies the large village of BOCKING, with the Perpendicular parish church of St Mary, similar industries, and a population of 3347.
BRAINTREE, a township of Norfolk county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., on the Monatiquot river about 10 m. S. of Boston. Pop. (1890) 4848; (1900) 598l, including 1250 foreign-born; (1905, state census) 6879; (1910) 8066. The New York, New Haven & Hartford railway crosses the town and has stations at its villages of Braintree, South Braintree and East Braintree, which are also served by suburban electric railways. In South Braintree are the Thayer Academy (co-educational; opened 1877) and the Thayer public library, both founded by and named in honour of General Sylvanus Thayer (1785-1872), a well-known military engineer born in Braintree, who was superintendent of the United States Military Academy in 1817-1833 and has been called the “father of West Point.” There are large shoe factories and other manufactories. Bog iron was early found in Braintree, and iron-works, among the first in America, were established here in 1644. Braintree was first incorporated in 1640 from land belonging to Boston and called Mount Wollaston, and was named from the town in England. At Merry Mount, in that part of Braintree which is now Quincy, a settlement was established by Thomas Morton in 1625, but the gay life of the settlers and their selling rum and firearms to the Indians greatly offended the Pilgrims of Plymouth, who in 1627 arrested Morton; soon afterward Governor John Endecott of Massachusetts Bay visited Merry Mount, rebuked the inhabitants and cut down their Maypole. Later the place was abandoned, and in 1634 a Puritan settlement was made here. In 1708 the town was divided into the North Precinct and the South Precinct, and it was in the former, now Quincy, that John Adams, John Hancock and John Quincy Adams were born. Quincy was separated from Braintree in 1792 (there were further additions to Quincy from Braintree in 1856), and Randolph in 1793.
See D.M. Wilson, Quincy, Old Braintree and Merry Mount (Boston, 1906); C.F. Adams, Jr., Three Episodes of Massachusetts History (Boston, 1892 and 1896); W.S. Pattee, History of Old Braintree and Quincy (Quincy, 1878).
BRAKE, a town of Germany, in the grand duchy of Oldenburg, on the left bank of the Weser, about halfway between Bremen and the mouth of the river. Pop. 5000. It was for centuries the port of Bremen; and though, since the founding of Bremerhaven, it no longer possesses a monopoly of the river traffic as before, it still continues to flourish. Large docks have been constructed, and the place has a considerable import trade in English coal. Shipbuilding and weaving are carried on to some extent.
Brake in Oldenburg must be distinguished from the village of the same name in the principality of Lippe, known as Brake bei Limgo, which gave its name to the cadet line of the counts of Lippe-Brake (1621-1709).