Michael, Hugh, Thomas, Patrick (3), James, Edward and Mathew McCabes and their wives were born in Ireland.  They came to Green Oak, Hamburg, Unadilla and Genoa Township by way of Canada, New York or Illinois, to find a life tilling the soil.  By 1844, several are listed as resident taxpayers in Green Oak Township sections 9,10,15 & 16. This concentration if Irish immigrants soon acquired the local name of Paddytown, The Monahan, or Irish Cemetery, corner McCabe and Silver Lake Roads in the resting place for many Irish settlers.  Census records indicate education was important to the McCabes. Children of school age attended regularly.  One also finds that those 15 years and older are often employed by neighboring farmers and as domestics.  The large families needed to the children’s income to survive.

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 from a site much closer to the Grand River Trial.)