Residing in Wayne County, Truman (or Freeman) B. Worden purchased 80 acres in Brighton Township, Section 31, June 1, 1835. ( E. of Grand River, both sides of Spencer Rd.) Living in Brighton by January 25, 1837, 80 acres, was purchased in Section 30.  January 21, 1837 and April 5, 1837, two 40 acres pieces in Genoa Township Section 25 were recorded.  These three, purchased in 1837, extended from Cross Street to Challis Road, west from Ore Creek into Genoa Township.  (Meijers, Brighton Mall, Mt. Brighton, etc.)  The lake on the Genoa property became known as Worden Lake from which much ice was harvested over the years.  When the railroad came in 1871, a portion of the eastern side was filled resulting in Big and Little Worden.

As an early settler however, to him also goes the distinction of the first resident of Brighton (Ore Creek at the time) to die, November 29, 1837.  He is the first buried in the Village Cemetery site.  Truman’s wife, Jane, was left with two children:  Minerva, 13 and Fanny, 12, in a log house on the side of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 300 E. Grand River.  It came to be called the Worden House.  Jane appears to have sold the land in Section 31, by 1859, when it is owned by M.S. Smith and J. B. Lee, according to the atlas.

Minerva married Erastus A. Pratt c. 1846.  At 26 years he had come to Brighton in 1844.  In 1850 they are located in town and he is working in his blacksmith shop, on the south side of E. North St., middle of the block.  He worked his trade for 22 years making most of the plow irons used by the surrounding farmers. Their daughter, Florence, married Leslie Styles.  In 1855 Erastus is recorded as school board moderator. Early in the Civil War Erastus joined the 15th Michigan Infantry Regiment as 1st Lt. of Co. D, October 22, 1861. Within the year he was promoted to captain.  This regiment of 102 Livingston County men fought at Shiloh, Vicksburg, Decatur, Atlanta and Jonesboro in Georgia.  They ‘marched to the sea’ with General Sherman.  A total of 35 did not come home alive:  11 were killed, one died at Andersonville Prison.  And 23 died of wounds or disease.  Returning home, Erastus bought a farm near Silver Lake in Green Oak Township.  He served as J.P. in 1868, 1872.

In 1855, Fanny and husband Robert Charles are noted as owners of property (Brighton Section 30 and the Genoa acres) where they made their home.  In 1870 daughter, Adella, and husband Richard S. Hartshorne, farmer, are with her parents on that site.  The 1880 census indicates Fanny and her mother, Jane, are neighbors to Fanny’s son Frank in the Pleasant Valley area.  Fanny is recorded as a widow and Jane as divorced.  However, since Robert is still alive (d. 1891) and Truman died in 1837, it seems likely the marital status of these two women is reversed. Frank married Carrie DeWitt October 5, 1874.  Sister, Isabella married Daniel Hathaway and sister Blance married Bartaw I. Case.

Compiled by Marieanna Bair from Census records, 1880 History of Livingston County; Early Landowners and Settlers and obituaries copied by Milton Charboneau; Old Village Cemetery transcription by John & Janice Field; and Stephen Leith’s Case Family History.