Brighten

Brighton’s history began in 1826 when Oliver Brown built a log cabin in what is now Betse Ann Park. In 1836 Nathan Scarritt, a Mr. Elliott, Robert Smith of Alton, a Mr. Shaw of Philadelphia and a Mr. Van Antwerp of Missouri bought 280 acres of land from Oliver Brown and laid out a town of 40 acres and named it Bristol. Soon thereafter Herman Griggs founded another town north of Bristol and named it Brighton after the English namesake in Massachusetts. Quite a rivalry arose between the promoters of the two villages and in 1837 the town villages merged into one called Brighton.