Johann Heinrich Brummer was born in Asendorf, Germany on December 8, 1834. In August 1859 he married Sophia Steimke and in 1866 with their three small children, Herman, Margaret, and Henry, they came to America. The family stayed a few months in Chicago and then went to Platteville, WI. where they lived for two years. They then moved briefly to Story County, IA, and in the Spring of 1869 came to Cherokee County where they built their farm home three miles southeast of Cherokee. Here two more children were born, Mary and George

Farming was apparently prosperous for the Brummer family and in 1890 Mr. & Mrs. Brummer returned to Germany for a visit. In 1893 they purchased a home at 736 West Cedar (now on the National Register of Historic Places) and moved to town leaving the farming to their sons.

It was shortly after their move into the town of Cherokee, that Mr. Brummer bought the two lots at 101 & 103 E. Main and erected the three-story stone building faced with Sioux Falls pink quartzite which bears his name and stands as a monument to one of Cherokee's pioneer citizens.

Mr. Brummer spent the rest of his life at his home on West Cedar where he managed his various farming and business investments. He died after a fall in his yard causing a skull fracture on January 6, 1929 at the age of 94. He was the oldest living male citizen in Cherokee County at the time. His wife, Sophia, had passed away in 1925.

J.H. Brummer, a successful farmer and livestock raiser, most likely purchased the two lots at 101 & 103 E. Main in 1895. In 1896 he had erected the massive three-story stone building that still graces those lots. Emil Miller of LeMars, IA was the general contractor and initial cost of the construction was $21,400 (or about ~$650,000 in 2021). The building was fully faced with Sioux Falls pink quartzite with Romanesque features. The building was designed with two retail storefronts on the first floor with a wide central stairway to the upper floors. Offices for professional men and women were on the second floor with the third floor designed as lodge space which was soon occupied by the Masonic Lodge which moved across the street from the Allison Building. The last occupant of the third floor was Deb's School of Dance. The first tenants in the first floor storefronts were A. M. Wilson's "The Regulator", a clothing and dry goods store, at 101 and Adron's Furniture and Funerary at 103. Barber shops occupied the basement level in the early days. Previously at this location was the frame Goldsbury Building which Charles Goldsbury operated as a bank, law and land office. That building dated to 1870. It also housed a barber shop and James Gourley's watch and jewelry store. Businesses in the Brummer Building over the years are listed below (from Cherokee Area Archives business file, dates are the year of first known occupancy).