Brantford (2016 population 97,496, CMA population 134,203[2]) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, founded on the Grand River. It is surrounded by Brant County, but is politically separate with a municipal government of its own that is fully independent of the county’s municipal government.
Brantford is named after Joseph Brant, an important Mohawk chief during the American Revolutionary War and later, who led his people in their first decades in Upper Canada. Many of his descendants, and other First Nations citizens, live on the nearby Reserve of Six Nations of the Grand River, 20 kilometers from Brantford; it is the most populous reserve in Canada. Brantford is often known as the “Telephone City”. The city’s famous resident, Alexander Graham Bell, invented the device at his father’s homestead, Melville House, now the Bell Homestead.