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 to the Brighton area since the 1950s is not the first time its population has fluctuated since its formation in 1837.

When the Grand River Plank Road was completed in 1850, between Detroit and the new Capitol of Lansing, travel was made easier for new settlers.  The Civil War and the post bellum depression slowed the pace somewhat.  The coming of the railroad in 1871 caused another short-lived boom.  The village, especially, benefited from the houses being built by retiring pioneer farmers.  More stores, the Western Hotel and churches were built.  The Panic of 1893, the Spanish/American War, WW I and the great depression all had an impact on the area’s economic growth and progress.  (These events caused an exodus of young people who sought work in more industrialized areas.)  Following the Spanish-American War the auto and improved roads made it possible for people from the ‘big city’ to buy property on the area’s many lakes for summer homes.

By the turn of the century, farmers produced crops which brought money into the economy from outside the area.  Businesses, professionals and tradesmen were almost entirely dependent upon the farmers’ efforts for their livelihood.  The white farm houses, red barns; plowed fields, crops of corn, beans and potatoes in straight rows, waving wheat and oat fields, meadows of red clover and timothy hay, gardens, orchards, woodlots and pastures with fat black and white cattle all combined to give a picture book appearance of a prosperous community, of which anyone would like to be a part.

Today the era of the family farm in the area is about over.  Woodlots and fields are becoming homesites for the many who want to be a part of this bucolic lifestyle (as it appears to the newcomer.)  Greenfield Shores #1, 2, 3 and 4 was one of the early subdivisions, being platted in 1958 by Lowell Marvin.  How it came to be called by its popular name of Lake of the Pines is still a puzzle to this writer. (Note- a letter from Mary Marvin states that Lowell and brother Lawrence Marvin, planted 20,000 pine trees in early 1950s; therefore “Lake of the Pines”.)

Located in the SE ¼ of Section 28 and NE ¼ of Section 33, this area was first taken up b Wm. T. Tunis and Wm. S. Conely in 1834 and BB Kirchival and J.L. Briggs in 1836.  By 1857 Cyrenus Morgan owned 104 acres in the W ½ of the SE ¼ of Sec. 28, In 1859 Eli L. Sowles owned 160 acres in the NE ¼ of Sec. 33 and W.S. Conely and. A. Reiner owned 80 acres each on the SE ¼ of Sec. 28.  In 1875 W.W. Wheedon and S. Grant owned 80 acres each in the NE ¼ of Sec. 33 and NG. Morgan and Geo. W. Warner owned 80 acres each in the SE ¼ of Sec. 28.  By 1915 C.B. Grant (a descendant of S. Grant?)  owned all of the area of Lake of the Pines except that owned by Warner and Joe Leiski.  Grant farmed the area which was low, moist, mucky soil, with celery, onions and other products which would grow well in those conditions.  The lake which is there now was probably formed by springs in the area.

It’s a sunny, Sunday afternoon in 1875, and we’re going to visit the W.T. Tunis family who live about 2 ½ miles NE of town on the north line of Section 28 in Brighton Township.  The sleigh in which we’re riding east out of Upper Town of Brighton Village, takes Noble Street for two blocks then continues on Spencer Road past the Lee Addition, past Mud Lake.  Driving E/NE 1 ½ miles brings us near the NW corner of the property.  If we continued north another ¼ mile our trail would connect with the Flint Road (this road came out of the village’s northern end and, skirting marshes and steep hills, connected with the road known s Hilton before continuing north).  Instead we turn a short way down a road coming from the east (Buno Rd.) where Grandpa Tunis’ house is located.  We are warmly greeted and the horse put in the barn.  The wood stove is glowing and the hot cup of coffee encourages Jack Frost to leave our fingers and toes. 

Much of the area through which we’ve come is low and wet during the summer.  We have crossed a stream, which drains swamps for 8-10 miles north, continuing its flow in a SE direction through Tunis’ acres.  (This stream is dammed just inside the southern border of the township and provided power for the Woodruff Mills and the Pleasant Valley Mills.) Wm. Tunis built a home for his family shortly after arriving in Michigan Territory from New York City in 1835, and buying his land from the U.S. Government.

By the time we take our leave it is getting dark.  The bells on the horse’s harness warn other sleighs in the intense dark and equally intense silence of the night.  Few of us today will ever know such an intense dark or quiet.  In 1892, his descendents sold to James Hamilton who then sold to Frank Foland in 1907, a farmer from New York state born of “Mohawk Dutch” in Pennsylvania.  Frank died in 1948 and his widow, Mary, sold the remaining land to Alvin Thompson the following year.

The advent of the auto and increased speed created the necessity for removing the sharp right angle turns which in 1875, could be easily navigated.  The road we know as Old 23 was constructed in the 1930s, bypassing the village through which the road to Flint once ran.  Prior to that time the road between Ann Arbor and Flint, as most major roads, followed a circuitous trail, sometimes straight, along settler’s property lines and sometimes following the path of least resistance when confronted with steep hills or wet area.  In the early 1960s another improvement came off the drawing boards and the new 23 expressway was built through the east half of what had been the Tunis farm and blocking Buno Road’s intersection with Old 23.

All of this road building made it possible for new settlers.  The resulting demand for homes brought on a building boom.  Contractor Wm. C. Long answered some of that demand by constructing Colonial Village Subdivision in the mid to late 1960s.  During the next few years a crop of homes grew on the acres which had been laboriously cleared in order to grow farm crops and a garden.  Today that crop of homes brings forth people who care as much about their community and work as hard as their predecessors.

It’s Easter morning, 1875; ” Dolly” is easily pulling the shiny carriage full of excited children in their best ‘bib and tucker.’ We’re on our way to the new church to celebrate the first Easter within its walls – the Weslyan Methodist Pleasant Valley Church on the northeast corner of Pleasant Valley and Labadie Roads across from the cemetery in Brighton Township.

We’ve come past the log Lyons School on Buno Road where the children are taught the three Rs.  With spring plowing soon to begin the two oldest boys will have to stay home and help Pa.  (But they don’t really mind.)  With the bright oil lamps now available they can study in the evening.  Hopefully a frame school can soon be built.  The old log cabin, erected in 1842, is small, drafty and not well lighted. (Richard and Martha Lyon donated land for the school 33 years ago.)

“Easy, Dolly,” as we drive over a wet spot in the road after crossing the bridge over Mann Creek.  Passing through the swampy areas often makes one remember the November day in 1841, when five-year-old Mortimer Doyen got lost in the woods and swamps.  Altho’ his cries were heard, in the early darkness it was impossible to find him.  Three days later his body was found.  It makes is all the more careful with the little ones even now that forests are cleared and roads laid.

Since that Easter Sunday over 100 years ago, the 160 acres owned by Willard Beach in Section 22 (which was first taken up by Smith Beach from Ontario, New York, in 1833) and that owned by John Hacker in Section 15 (which was taken up by Cyrus Jackson From Wayne, New York, in 1836) has passed through several other hands.  In 1958 a plat was prepared by an attorney from Farmington, Percy Guardhouse, who purchased the property from Al and Madge Dunk and from Bert & Minnie Newman.

He put in the dam that formed the lake and has quieted the stream, which rises from the northeast out of Oakland County; supported by overflow from Beach Lake.  The undulating land, having been left by the retreating glaciers many centuries ago, today has been tamed by roads on which one finds many beautiful homes.  Oak, hickory and walnut stands had been replaced by hay fields, corn fields, pastures and orchards, which in turn, have given way to those searching for the place they call home – Lake Moraine. 

Edited from: “First Land Owners, Livingston County ” by Milton Charboneau, ” Livingston County History 1880: and assistance from Livingston County Register of Deeds Office., “Michigan Memorabilia: by Bill Pless, ” conversations with Charlene Kull and Helen Conricorde, Mae Foland Schmadtke, and Joe Ellis, Livingston County clerk.