Gradall Industries LLC

The history of Gradall as a company and as a product can be traced to two brothers, Ray and Koop Ferwerda, who emigrated from Holland to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1920. They immediately found work with construction of commercial and residential building projects in northeast Ohio, and by 1925, they started the Ferwerda Brothers Construction Co., involved in the building of roads and bridges, installing water and sewer lines, and building site preparation. With their work with road construction, they were challenged - like all contractors - with the use of hand labor using shovels, rakes and pikes to finish grade roadside embankments. In the late 1930s factories, were hiring men for military armament production to support the U.S. allies in Europe and China. This led to fewer men available to work in construction and especially to perform roadside finish grading work.