Did you know Brighton was originally called Ore Creek?
In 2010, the Brighton Area Historical Society shared the history of Brighton’s original name. It was also recently mentioned in a story from the Detroit Free Press, so we decided to do a little digging ourselves.
How was Brighton founded?
A local stream known as Ore Creek was named in 1832 by hunter Benjamin Blaine, according to the Brighton Area Historical Society. Blaine noticed the stream was fed by springs heavily impregnated with iron.
Brothers Maynard and Almon Maltby, who immigrated to the area from New York in 1832, began construction of a sawmill on Ore Creek (east of South Third Street) in 1833.
Also in the 1830s, Orson Quackenbush, another area settler, built a flour and gristmill with a breast water wheel upstream from the Maltbys, according to the Brighton Area Historical Society.
The proximity of the sawmill and the flour mill attracted settlers from the east. Maynard Maltby dubbed the burgeoning community Ore Creek.
When did Ore Creek become Brighton?
On Feb. 13, 1838, the U.S. Post Office Department gave the village the name Brighton; honoring the hometown of Sarah Maltby, wife of Maynard. For many years, early area settlers continued to call the area “Ore Crick,” according to the Brighton Area Historical Society.
The village was incorporated in 1867 and became a city in 1928.
— Contact reporter Evan Sasiela at esasiela@livingstondaily.com. Follow him on X @SalsaEvan.
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Did you know? In the early 1830s, Brighton went by a different name
Reporting by Evan Sasiela, Livingston Daily / Livingston Daily
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