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.)
The scene is Antwerp, Belgium; the event is the 100-meter run in the Olympic Games, the year is 1920. The gold medal winner of this event is Charles William Paddock of Brighton, Michigan, U.S.A. He has won by tying the world record of 10.8 seconds. The headlines proclaim him as the “Worlds Fastest Human.”
“Brighton, although not the oldest, is by no means the least considerable of the townships of the County of Livingston. Like many other townships it had, at first, no separate organization, but composed an important part of the Township of Green Oak, and it was not until April, 1838, that it was accorded a distinct […]
Born in Cambridshire, England, Joseph, b. 1831 and James, b. 1833, Peach were the two older of the seven of the ten children of Charles, b. 1807, and Ann Ankar, b. 1812, who made the ocean voyage to America. (The others were Robert, Mary Ann, John, Sarah and Hannah.) Arriving in New York in 1854, […]
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 […]
