It
seems an established fact that Elijah Marsh was the first settler in the
township
of
Brighton
outside the village limits. He
left
Hadley
,
Mass.
, in 1832, and purchased from the
government, on the 20th of October of that year, the southwest quarter
of section 12. Later he added 40 acres on section 1. With Mr. Marsh came Job
Cranston
, who shared with
him all the privations of his pioneer life, having entered at the same date 80
acres on the same section. These two settlers for a brief period lived alone,
with no neighbors save the migratory Indians, who paid them brief visits, and
furnished them venison and other game for the very scanty returns they were
able to make. Soon, however, their loneliness was cheered by the presence of
Gardner
Bird, who reached
the county in February of the following year, and entered 160 acres on sections
11 and 17. Mr. Bird devoted himself at once to clearing a tract of land whereon
to erect his cabin and sow his grain. Meanwhile he enjoyed such rude
hospitality as was cheerfully accorded him by his neighbors. After this he
returned, and in April brought his family, Mrs. Bird being the first married
lady who took up her residence in the township. Meanwhile, Messrs. Marsh and
Cranston had returned for a visit to their families, and Mr. and Mrs. Bird were
left the sole occupants of the forest of Brighton from April until the
following September.
Mr. Marsh, as soon as he was able, employed two men to
split rails with which to inclose a portion of the land he had purchased, and
on his return from the East made a comfortable home for his wife and children
in the shanty he had occupied. Three children were born after the removal of
Mr. and Mrs. Marsh to
Michigan
,
the first of whom, born April 22, 1834, was among the first in the township.
Mr. Marsh might be termed a Yankee peddler, and
followed this calling soon after he became a permanent settler in the township,
loading his primitive cart with such marketable wares as were in demand among
his patrons, and depending upon his faithful oxen to carry him from point to
point. The nearest blacksmith-shop was eighteen miles away, and
Ann Arbor
the nearest
market town. Mr. Marsh died in 1857, and his son, Richard J., now occupies a
fine farm opposite his father's former home.
Mr. Bird remembers the difficulties he encountered in
reaching his new home; and the absolutely unbroken condition of the country.
Deer and wolves roamed the forests, at pleasure, and forty of the former were
seen by him on his way to his new possessions. After the land was sufficiently
cleared to admit of being broken, the plow became a necessity, and he was
compelled to travel to Dexter, twenty-two miles away, to have the irons
sharpened and repaired when necessary. Mr. Bird before coming to Brighton, had
resided for a brief season in Webster, Washtenaw Co. On one occasion, when
coming from there to
Brighton
, he brought with
him a hog and nine pigs, driving them the distance of eighteen miles. After
remaining a few days to split rails, he returned to Webster, leaving, as he
supposed, his recent acquisition of stock behind, but his surprise was great to
find that they had followed him and arrived almost as soon as himself, much
preferring the comforts of civilization in Washtenaw County to pioneer life in
the wilds of Brighton. While Mr. Bird was breaking up his land the lad he
employed to drive the ox-team, was confined to the house by illness, but the
work was not impeded, for Mrs. Bird herself went into the field with the oxen
and assisted to plow four acres. Joseph Bird, their oldest son, born in
Michigan, was among the 220. first children born in the township, the date of his birth being
October, 1834.
In the year 1833, Melzer Bird, a nephew of
Gardner
Bird, was induced, by the emigration of his uncle
to
Michigan
and the advantages the State offered to young men of energy, to place his name
upon the roll of pioneers. He arrived from
Ontario County
,
N.Y.
,
in 1833, and entered 120 acres on section 14. In May of the following year he
started in a wagon drawn by oxen and laden' with his wife and two children, and
such household goods as he could bring, and wended his way to the tract of land
which was henceforth to become to them a home. They came by way of
Detroit
and were
exceptional in the fact that they experienced very little difficulty in
reaching their destination. They followed the Indian trail, which was an
unerring guide, and on their arrival found a welcome to the home of
Gardner
Bird until Melzer
could erect a, shanty for himself. The same summer he cleared 10 acres and
sowed it with wheat, fencing three sides of, the lot, the fourth side joining
his uncle's land, which rendered fencing unnecessary. He was rewarded by a
harvest of 200 bushels, which he regarded as a very satisfactory return for his
industry, and Mr. Bird, in the winter, recalled with gratitude the progress he
had made during his first season as a pioneer. Indeed, he and his family seem
to have been fortunate in escaping many of those deprivations and annoyances
which are incident to early emigration, and in a very pleasant interview with this
venerable gentleman, the writer was unable to recall to his mind any memories
of early days which did not afford a pleasing retrospect.
A post-office was established very early in the
neighborhood, which was known as the
Pleasant
Valley
office, and for
years Elijah Marsh held the position of postmaster. His successor was Peter
Delamater, who, not wishing to qualify, transferred the emoluments of the
office, together with its honors, to Melzer Bird, who held it for six years and
distributed the not very weighty mail which arrived weekly from Brighton, or
Ore Creek, as it was then designated.
The first residents of the township early turned their
attention to the means of education for their children, and erected, in, 1834,
on government land, on section 11, a small log school-house, in which the
little ones of the neighborhood were congregated under the supervision of Miss
Sarah Huntley, of Hartland. The teacher enjoyed in turn the hospitality of all
her patrons, and was certainly the earliest instructor in the township, as the
building in which she taught was unquestionably the first school-house in the
township.
The little community were saddened by a death which occurred June 13, 1835, at
the house of Mr. Robert Edgar. A young man, named Abram L. Andrews,
twenty-seven years of age, had been induced, by the hope of improved health,
from the active exercise that the clearing of a new country necessitated, to
enter 80 acres of land on section 23. He lived but three weeks in his new home,
and there being at the time no clergyman to perform the funeral rites, Mr.
Edgar officiated on the occasion and delivered an address. Melzer Bird took
from his barn the boards with which to make the coffin. This was the first
death which occurred in the township. One of the earliest settlers mentions
another early death, that of Abel Whalen, a teacher, which occurred in a house
on the hill north of the Woodruff mill.
Benjamin Blain emigrated to the State of Michigan from
Orleans Co., N.Y., in 1833. Having a brother in Green Oak, he repaired to his
house, on the banks of
Silver
Lake
, and remained with him a brief time, meanwhile
locating 160 acres of land on sections 5 and 6, in the
township
of
Brighton
.
For a year and a half he was employed by Kinsley S. Bingham and Robert Warden,
but being desirous to establish a home for himself, he began, in October, 1834,
the erection of a log house on his land. This house, though simple in design,
required as much time and labor in the construction as many more elegant
habitations of the present day. Very few tools were procurable with which to
assist the work, but Mr. Blain made stakes for the roof and cut sticks for the
chimney and in the ensuing spring secured boards enough at Woodruff's saw-mill
with which to lay two floors, a ladder serving as staircase from the lower to
the upper story. Four acres of the land were cleared and planted with potatoes.
The first winter his quarters were shared with Seth Bidwell and Leonard
Barnham, the latter gentleman afterwards becoming sexton of All Saints'
Church, of
New York City
.
Upon the occasion of Mr. Blain's first visit to the
place not a tree had been felled from the forest standing on the site of the
future village of Brighton. The Indian trail followed the course of the present
Grand River Street
,
turning to the left near the house now occupied by George Cushing, crossing the
creek just above the residence of John A. Meyer, and returning in a line nearly
parallel with the street. Mr. Blain was skillful in the use of the rifle, and
found in the forests of
Livingston
County
an ample range for
the gratification of his favorite pastime. The first year of his residence,
eighty deer were among the trophies of his skill. For six years he continued
the isolated life of the hunter, varied occasionally by long
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