Maple Lawn Farm, on Pleasant Valley Road just north of Buno Road, in Brighton Township still has maples in the lawn. A. c.1900 newspaper clipping lists Wm. J. Donaldson as the owner. In ‘Early Land Owners and Settlers in Livingston County’ one finds several Andrews making land purchases in the Township. One Abram, from Monroe […]
Among the very early families names recorded in the Village Cemetery records and whose farms were also listed in the c. 1900 Argus, one finds the name of Prosser. Joining the many who were streaming into Michigan and Brighton Township, in the mid 1830s, where Charles and Elmina Prosser from Genesee County, New York. Lydia […]
Among early arrivals to the area were both Aaron A. and Hiram S. Newman. By 1859 Aaron owned 200 acres in Section 5, 6 & 7 of Brighton Township. The 1875 Atlas records 80 acres in Sec. 9 in Hirams name. Hiram was a commissioner in the Howell Lansing Railroad Company, which brought the railroad […]
Over the radios came the news, D-Day, the Invasion of Europe! Those over the age of 65 are all too able to recall that day. As with December 7, 1941, and November 22, 1963, one will always remember that momentous event. Following high school graduation, June 8, several of the 18 year olds found themselves […]
In a report on religious activity in Brighton Township in the 1880 History of Livingston County, writer John Ellis notes the early beginnings of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in the area. March 9, 1873 the Pleasant Valley Congregation was organized, meeting in the log one room Lyons Schoolhouse. In spring, 1874, it was decided to […]
Evergreen Lodge, in Mrs. George W. (Alice) Conleys name, is the subject of this article. In the days before Michigan became a state, many from the east traveled the Erie Canal over the Adirondack Mountains; many boarding a boat at Buffalo to cross Lake Erie, to finally arrive in Detroit. To reserve acre of land […]
In the 1870 census of Livingston County we find the first evidence of Myron West living in Brighton Township. He is working for Hiram Nichols who has 120 acres in Section 35, SE ¼ (The present side of Brighton Hospital. The house, which formed the nucleus of the hospital was moved to its present location […]
Less than 20 years after the earliest pioneer settled in Brighton Township, Rev. and Mrs. Chauncey Osborne arrived in 1852. Newcomers to the village area were hard pressed to find organized Christian leadership. The German congregation of St. George Evangelical Lutherans had been chartered in Genoa Township and St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church was making […]
Thomas S. Hilton, born in England in 1822 came to the U.S. in 1849; settling the Brighton Township shortly after. By 1852 he and Adeline Rogers, neighbors across the road, married. Adeline, born in 1834 in New Jersey, came with her parents, Amos and Permelia Rogers in 1836. (The 1859 Atlas shows Rogers owned 50 […]
