BRÉZOL Edouard

Edouard Victor BRÉZOL was born in Saint-Laurent (near Charleville-Mézières) on 26 March 1854.
His grandfather, Isidore BRÉZOL (1789-1853), invented a machine for manufacturing nails in 1838. His two sons Jean Baptiste (b. 1816) and Jules Alexandre (b. 1818) continued the family business after the death of Isidore in 1853.
Jean Baptiste BRÉZOL filed three patents in France for nail-manufacturing machines between 1850 and 1864.
Jules Alexandre BRÉZOL’s name appears briefly in 1872 in the Maastricht population register. He presumably stayed there for a while with his family to set up a nail-manufacturing plant.
Edouard BRÉZOL, eldest son of Jules Alexandre, married Melina BLANCHET in 1880 in Nouzonville (near Charleville-Mézières, French Ardennes), where the couple’s first child was born in 1881. The couple had two more children also born in the French Ardennes.
In 1882 BRÉZOL came to Ettelbruck to help Edmond HODEZ (born in Verdun in 1862) to set up a factory for manufacturing shoe-nails. HODEZ had imported machines from a factory in Chatel-St-Germain (near Metz). He had no particular link to Ettelbruck so that it is probable that he wished to install a factory in the Grand-Duchy in order to take advantage of the more favorable custom duties of the Zollverein for exporting nails onto the German market.
BRÉZOL did not stay long in Ettelbruck and went back to the family business in Nouzonville.
In 1887, however, BRÉZOL returned to Luxembourg to set up a nail-manufacturing plant in Bissen. He rented the premises of the abandoned foundry in Bissen from KILBURG and set up his household in an annex on the factory ground. Two more children were born in Bissen (1889 and 1900).
BRÉZOL shared the factory space with the Ettelbruck-born MAY brothers, Michel and Jacques, who manufactured shoe-nails on their separate account in the Bissen factory.
The HODEZ factory in Ettelbruck was partly damaged by a fire in July 1891 and completely destroyed by another fire in October 1891.
HODEZ joined BRÉZOL in Bissen in 1892. He moved his factory equipment from Ettelbruck into the Bissen premises.
In 1895 BREZOL decided to sell his part in the Bissen factory and to become a commercial agent in Luxembourg-city (4 rue Wallis) for selling machines à vapeur et chaudières. As former French army officer, he had excellent contacts to French industrial circles. He also released the information that he was of very noble French descent.
He put his share of equipment and materials in the Bissen factory up for sale in an auction and HODEZ bought the stock of finished products and the stock of supplies, but did not take over the machinery.
In 1899 HODEZ associated with French citizen ANDRÉ (born in Sierk?) and bought the Bissen premises from KILBURG.
HODEZ died in 1908 and ANDRÉ took over under the name of ANDRÉ & Cie. The company went bankrupt a year later in 1909.
A new company by the name of “Société métallurgique de Bissen” was set up in September 1910. It became part of the ARBED group in 1922. The nail-production unit in Bissen closed in 1970.
Edouard BRÉZOL, the founder of the Bissen nail-manufacturing plant, died in 1916 in Luxembourg-city.

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