Struggling through the wet area in the southeast corner of Genoa Township (at that time the north half of Hamburg Township) around the lake (Lime Lake), it was with relief Henry Earl arrived on higher ground. But what a steep hill to climb! Henry Earl examined the 160 acres he had purchased from the U.S. […]
The Indians were the first to feel the effects of the migration of people into the Brighton area, the first to be displaced by an influx of newcomers. Most who have lived here for the past 50 years are very aware of the changes which have taken place more recently. The flood of people moving […]
Brightons first electric lighting plant was built in 1897 by Carl Conrad. He installed wiring in local homes virtually free of charge to encourage the use of electricity for lighting and operating small appliances. On all but moonlit nights, the streets of downtown Brighton were soon illuminated by arched strings of light bulbs. The Brighton […]
By the late 1920s it because necessary to consider the construction of another building in which to educate the children of the area, which now included high school pupils from outlying districts. The story is told that a dispute arose as the location of this school. To settle the argument, Thomas S. Leigh, school board […]
The 75th Anniversary issue of the Brighton Argus, printed in 1955, includes many references to earlier events. Among them was a recounting of an 1880 ball game between Brighton and Fowlerville. Brightons original baseball club was organized as The Maple Leaf Club in 1876. Its first game that year was played . . . against […]
Websters Collegiate Dictionary- Banking: an establishment for the custody, loan, exchange or issue of money, for the extension of credit and for facilitating the transmission of funds by drafts or bills of exchange.
July 4th, 1871, 122 years ago, Brightonians, by the 100s, were waiting at the railroad crossing on W. Main. They were there to celebrate the opening of the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad. They were inpatient; they had been waiting a long time.
In 1907, Henry Fitch was one of the some 800 former residents of Brighton to return from all points of the compass to attend a Home Coming celebration. Henry had been away for more than 50 years, and at a mass meeting at the old “Opera House” (today, Stouts Bar on Grand River) reminisced, in […]
Only close observation when traveling I-96 with its gentle rises and filled-in valleys reveals any indication of the steep hills, many streams and rivers and the ever present swamps through which a team struggled to pull a wagon load of humanity. It is very difficult to imagine the fields of corn and pastures full of […]
Land in the southwest corner of Brighton Township was first taken up from the US Government by Maynard Maltby in 1832. Between 1832 and 1835, Anthony Gale. Elijah Fitch, John & Elizabeth Cushing, Wm. Noble and others also filed claims to land in this area. Some of these folks stayed and developed the land; others […]
