Of the early settlers to the Brighton Area, many were of a moral caliber, which assumed a responsibility to the community and the young state. Among them was John Gilluly, son of Irish-born parents, Thomas and Ann. John was born in Massachusetts. Research indicates John taught in the Brighton School District in 1845, 46,57, 59. […]
When husband William Henry died at 48 in 1835, it may be assumed his mercantile business in Hamburg, Germany, was sold. Perhaps the proceeds enabled Henrietta to bring her family to America. She and the children, William H. (21), Emma (15), Edward G. (11) and Charles E. (8) spent 10 weeks crossing the briney deep.
Eldad Spencer Field, with brother-in-law Norton Wait, came to Michigan within ten years of the completion of the Erie Canal. (The convenient and economical route over the Appalachian Mountains in New York opened the way for settlers to pioneer in Michigan Territory. Early Livingston County census records indicate a family of Fields in each township.)
As early as 1837, German Lutherans had settled in southeastern Livingston County. By 1842, they began meeting for public worship services, under the leadership of the pioneer Lutheran missionary in eastern Michigan, the Rev. Frederick Schmidt (born Sept. 6, 1807, in Wuertemberg, Germany; died August 30, 1883 at Ann Arbor).
Groups of settlers united as they headed west to Michigan from New York in the 1830s; many of them long time friends. (Not unlike the wagon trains which went West a few years later.) Arriving in Brighton Township they found no living quarters, merely a wilderness. Some land was level, some wet, much rolling, almost […]
Of the seven children of Godfrey and Sophia Westphall, Gustav was the youngest and the only one born in the U.S. His next oldest brother, Lewis H. (b. 1845), was born on the Atlantic Ocean during the long crossing from their ancestral home in Germany.
Why make the perilous 6-9 week journey over the Atlantic to an unfamiliar country, to a remote farm in Livingston County in the early 1800? Military conscription, political unrest and the hope of owning ones own land prompted many from Germany to begin anew in America; even to the extent of leaving family ties behind.How […]
Several McDonnels are listed as first landowners in the area: Charles in Osceola and James and Michael both in Hartland Townships. A John McConnell, of Monroe, N. Y. recorded on May 11, 1833, a purchase of 160 acres in Section 26 of Brighton Township. (Buno and Spencer Rd. area.) Some McDonalds purchased land in Green […]
While not a famous man, nor a great one, nevertheless Ernest A. Buek typified the dedicated, devout (his family were members of St. Michaels in Hamburg, Germany), often forgotten common people whose sturdy leadership gave our rural areas the strength to grow and flourish.
John Bauer and wife, Magdelina, came to the U.S. from Germany c. 1844. Their three sons, Leonard (ll), George (9) and Thomas (3), came with them. They lived in Detroit until moving to Saginaw from where they came to Genoa township in 1850. (Baby Margaret was born 1847.)
