The advent of gristmills eliminated the tedious hand grinding of grain which had been necessary to have flour, or the labor and expenses of several days travel to bring it from Detroit or Ann Arbor. Today it is difficult to decide which cake mix or which of dozens of types of bread to select. Following the cutting of trees the now open fields were planted to corn, wheat, rye, oats, barley, etc. during the 1830s several gristmills were built in the area.
Although the village was centered, in 1840 on the hill where Spencer Road and Rickett Road intersect the Grand River Trail, “Upper Town”, Orson Quackenbush selected vacant land in “Lower Town” to build the Brighton Flouring and Gristmill. The site was located on the north side of W. North Street; a strip about two blocks wide extending north (on the west side of S. West Street.) The parcel included the area to be flooded by the millpond, an the nigh ground now occupied by the Old Town Hall, St. Pauls Episcopal Church and the village cemetery. After securing the plot, water rights also had to be obtained before building the dam. In those days this mill saved farmers a long trip to Woodruffs Mill on Pleasant Valley Road.
Although presently the city parking lot, the location was low and marshy ground. Moving dirt with a small slip scraper with one h.p. to construct the dam and spillway and form the receway ponds north of the mill required considerable time. (It seems likely the lumber for the mill was cut by the Maltby Sawmill just a few hundred feet down stream.) During the years of the mills operation there were two bridges on W. North Street; one over the stream from the water that turned the water wheel, the other over the water from the spillway. The dam was built on the south side of Main Street.
Quackenbush operated his mill for a few months and then sold the mill, including all the property and rights to Rev. Wm. A. Clark. He died in September 1841 and his heirs sold the mill back to Quackenbush. However, the Clarks donated the high ground east of the mill pond as a future site for the Episcopal Church and the Village received the land where the cemetery and the Old Town Hall are now located.
In 1847, Quackenbush sold the mill to Evert Woodruff, who in 1849, sold the Brighton Mill to Lyman Judson, who owned a large farm on Grand River Road, Just east of the village limits. Judson enlarged the mill, removed the old breast water wheel and installed a French turbine type of water wheel. In 1856 he sold the mill to Egbert F. Albright and Chester Thomson.
Under their operation for the next 25 years the turbine water wheel was replaced by three others of improved style and two runs of stones were employed. It is thought they were also the builders of a brick addition, complete with a tall chimney, to house a steam boiler to provide power in the dry summer months when Ore Creeks water flow was reduced to a trickle. During those times the pond dried to such a low level the rotting pond lilies and marsh grass caused an objectionable odor in the downtown and adjacent area.
In the mid 1870s mill ownership changed to Charles T. Hyne and sons Will, Fred and Frank. All had large farms in the area and other business interests, including a grain elevator and a coal and lumberyard. “HYNE BROS” was just visible on the sign on the mills last day.
Along W. Main Street a footbridge over the stream and its swampy edges was in use until after 1900. At that time low areas were filled, the street improved and a sidewalk laid. Its 1895, imagine traversing that walk; on the south side one sees the mill, its receway ponds the dam gate, foaming water in the spillway, the two bridges on North Street; and on the north side one looks out on the mill pond, the little church on the hill in front of the cemetery, homes to the west and white boats tied here and there along the shore and under the foot bridge.
By 1907, the Galbraith family was advertising 25# sacks of their “Ideal” wheat flour for 55¢ and a like amount of ” Gold Seal” flour for 60¢. Those prices included free delivery “to any part of the village”.
Following the Galbraiths, Brighton Mills was operated by a partnership of two unrelated men named Thompson. Will, an experienced miller, worked in the mill full time. His partner, John, was an ambitious man following many different pursuits. He was a rural mail carrier by profession, but he also kept and milked a herd of cows in a barn on the north east corner of Grand River and Main Street. He also helped his partner install an electric motor to supplement waterpower.
Although it had been a favorite of at least two generations of homemakers, the “Ideal Bread and Pastry Flour: produced at the Brighton Mills was faced with stiff competion in the marketplace. Housewives were buying “bakers bread” made in Detroit and delivered by truck. Prepared and packaged foods such as cookies, muffins and cupcakes were stocked in the local grocery stores. It wasnt long before the tired old mill, along with the tired old millers, was forced to shut its doors.
Brighton was not the only community in which the world of technology caught up with the formerly vital mills; they were closed. Immediately following WW I, and continuing for more than 20 years, Henry Ford began purchasing old mills in some of the smaller towns, planning to covert them into water powered plants that could supply his River Rouge complex with small automobile parts. His intentions were to provide work during the winter months for those living in rural areas and small towns. Perhaps because of lack of community cooperation, high prices on adjacent land, etc., Mr. Ford dismissed plans for the local mill.
In the summer of 1953, the sluice dam, which enclosed a quiet pond of stagnant, odorous, mosquito-infested water (across Main Street from the Old Town Hall) was disturbed (by a neighbors shovel). Later that night, with a deep rumble and the “dangdest racket you ever heard:, the mill pond was no more. Huge trees which grew in the cool, moist hollow which was the sluice way, came crashing down; a result of little Ore Creek. The surrounding shallow, marshy area soon made itself known to the nostrils in the warm sun. This objectionable condition forced local politicos into action. Before long the property was purchased and a small control dam built on the north side of Main, the following year. A large culvert was installed to carry Ore Creek under the street to the south side of North Street. The hollow was filled in and parking lot constructed.
Various community organizations have endeavored to enhance the millpond and its surroundings through the years, making it a unique and desirable addition to the town and community. Brighton Kiwanians built a gazebo to commeratore the nations Bicentennial. Sunday evenings, during the summer, hundreds enjoy concerts and the indescribable ambiance which comes as a result of people playing, working and living together. It has become a gathering place for the community just as the old mill was once the center of activity.
However, at the closing of the old mill, local farmers were not without a mill to grind their grain. A.C. Stewart & Son had, c. 1900, leased an elevator by the tracks behind the Chilson Store in Genoa Township. After two years, he leased the elevator by the railroad in Brigthon. About 1917-18 this business was sold to a cooperative and he bought the building on Main Street ( Now Mill Pond Pub) where an electric motor drove the grinding equipment. During the 20s, 30s and 40s wagons and trucks could be driven down the alley behind the elevator. Ears of corn and other grains were dumped into the grated chute to be ground. After Steward sold the business, those with grain to grind had to go to Howell. Today the family can visit the restored Greenoch Mill in Green Oak Township on Rushton Road between 9 and 10 Mile Roads. A living, working mill will give them a taste of yesterday and a glimpse of the energy of those who proceded us.
Compilied and edited by Marieanna Bair from: Michigan Memorabilia, William Pless and the 1880 History of Livingston County, Mary Mathias and Charlene Kull.