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 fact, September 21, 1864 saw the incorporation of the Detroit & Howell Railroad company.  Four Commissioners and 16 Directors were among the first officers.  Wm. McPherson, Treasurer, was the main promoter and to him must major credit be given for the procuring of subscriptions, securing rights-of-way, etc.

It was September 1866, before the president of the railroad reported that sufficient stock had been sold to begin construction between Plymouth and Howell.  But it was 1868 before much work was done and then the money ran out.

On June 23, 1868 the Howell & Lansing Railroad Company was registered with the state.  These two railroad companies merged on April 11, 1870 and became the Detroit, Howell & Lansing Railroad Company.  (In September 1870, this company consolidated with another to form the Detroit, Lansing, Lake Michigan Railroad Company.  Soon after this became the Detroit Lansing & Northern to be renamed Pere Marquette by 1915.)  By working from both Detroit and Lansing the tracks met in Fowlerville in August, 1871.

One could board or leave the train at Green Oak Station, Brighton, Genoa Station, Howell and Fowlerville.  For 22 cents one could travel from G.T. Junction to Green Oak Station, 38 miles; to Brighton, 44 miles cost 24 cents and to Genoa Station, 47 miles, the charge was 26 cents according to a poster dated August 231, 1871.

The aforementioned Wm. McPherson was an astute businessman.  Early in 1871, certain of the route the railroad would take through Brighton, he, his brother Edward and Hiram H. Smith, president of the Detroit, Lansing, Lake Michigan railroad, formed a partnership to buy land in Brighton,  The Smith-McPherson Addition included land lying north of W. Main bought from Elizabeth Cushing and that south of W. Main from Elijah Fitch.  By early 1872 lots were being sold in an area four blocks north and south of W. Main out to the Genoa Township line at 7th Street, for residential purposes.

Lumber years sprang up on both sides of the tracks, also grain storage facilities, coal yards and stockyards.  The Western House Hotel was built in 1869.  A depot was built at the west end of Cedar Street.  With no fanfare or publicity at the time, the depot seemed to disappear one August day in 1968.  The community was unaware of the planned removal until it was gone.

A July 12, 1899, Brighton Argus article noted that “Island Lake is now a flag station for all except the two fast trains”.  In the period before and after the Spanish-American War, the National Guard Encampment for Infantry and Cavalry units was located just east of Island Lake at the railroad crossing at Academy Dr. (This is now within the Island Lake Recreation Area.) A Michigan Historic Site marker memorializes the site.  Excursion trains brought wives and friends out for s Sunday visit with the Guardsmen.  A 1915 Atlas still shows an Island Lake Station on the north side of the tracks at that location. 

Farmers, especially, had been looking forward to the arrival of the railroad.  This meant their grains, livestock, fruits and other produce could be transported to market by a more convenient, certain and quicker means that the plank toll road they’d used.  The plank road had done its job for over 20 years, but the times and the demands were changing.  Land doubled in value (with resultant higher taxes) but with an economy based on agriculture good times were anticipated.  Merchants also could enlarge their inventory.  Mail would be conveniently sent and received along with newspapers and magazines from all over the world.  The entire family could visit friends and relatives oftener and fairs, concerts and other events easily reached.  Young people could now find a job in another city, or attend a distant university.  Life in Brighton could only get better.

The reverse of the coin revealed another picture.  Newspapers told of train accidents, the stagecoach and the livestock driver were put out of business.  The lives of many were changed, not always for the better.

We are aware the railroad was not the final work in transportation.  Within 40 years the gasoline engine came into its own.  Innovations are a fact of life.  It is up to us to adjust.  The only thing of which one can be sure is change.  Ready or not it’s continually happening.

The depot was, of course, the center of attention when the passenger trains stopped.  Just to be able to see people and to be seen was a new and enjoyable experience.  To top it off there was also the phenomenon of the tapping the telegraph key relaying messages.

July 20, 1907 finds an excursion train carrying railroad employees and their families from towns and cities west of Brighton on an outing to Detroit.  A westbound freight was on the same track.  At Salem, Washtenaw County, the two trains met head on.  Almost every one sustained an injury and 33 were killed.  The high casualty list can be attributed to the wood, open vestibule type passenger coaches.

East bound trains soon filled the side tracks in Brighton as doctors, nurses, druggist, dentists or anyone qualified to aid the injured were rushed to the scene.  Women of Brighton donated bed sheets to be used as bandages.  All afternoon and well into the night coaches filled with injured passengers passed through on the way to hospitals in Lansing.  (Only large cities had hospitals.)  Ambulances, paramedics and all the other emergency services now available were unknown at the time.

During that time women and children wore white clothing for a summer holiday.  These now presented a gruesome sight, soiled and bloodstained.  The white bandages, flaunting their crimson source, added to the grisly scene.  And then, as now, an accident provoked a morbid curiosity in many.  We all troop to the ‘station’ to see.

However, about three weeks later that summer, a seven-coach train brought people with times to the Brighton area to a homecoming celebration on August 7, 1907.  They were properly welcomed at the depot by the Brighton Band and horses and buggies lined the streets to receive the visitors for transport to relatives’ and friends’ homes.

The residents of Brighton Village were almost outnumbered by the visitors.  The weeklong celebration included parades, picnics and prayers, concerts, ball games and horseshoe pitching.  It was a happy time of reminiscence.

Yes, the train still travels through Brighton.  However the wail of the steam engine has been replaced by the horn of the diesel.  Almost everything the railroad brought is gone;  The depot, water tank, stockyards, ice houses, hoboes, steam engines, coal yards, grain elevators, the clicking telegraph key and the long lines of farm wagons bringing grain, beans, potatoes, apples, wool and livestock to be shipped to distant markets.  However the Western House is still there and perhaps, if you don’t look too closely to the north as you’re crossing the tracks, you’ll spot the ghosts of another day and another time in the Brighton area.