BRIGHTON STORES

And More History

 

The William S. Brighton's operated a small store that stocked a few staple grocers, canned goods, etc.  There was always a candy grab bag for the children.

            

FROM AN ACCOUNT BOOK OF WILLIAM S. BRIGHTON:

 

1883                               102 ft. rope for Emiline Lode                             $6.80

                                      Giant powder and caps                                    2.55

 

August 6, 1883             Val Gibson commenced work for W.S.B. at $45 per month.

 

Groceries: 

July 1883                       29 lbs. mutton at 9 cents                                   $2.61

July 15, 1884                 1 ham 15 lbs.                                                       $2.08

                                       flour 50 lbs.                                                           1.25

                                      sugar 50 lbs.                                                         4.65

                                      1 packet coffee                                                     .18

                                      bushel potatoes                                                    .30

                                      Settled with Van Gibson for 9 days

Work on

17 August 1883            1.74      

Sept. 16, 1885             1 ham 13 lbs at 15 cents                                     1.95

1888                             Mutton 6 cents per lb.                          

 

A second Brighton store was opened about 1900 by Will H. and Clara Brighton in a room they had built onto their home on the flat.  They had taken over the second post office and the one phone in the canyon.  This phone served the whole canyon and was in their dining room (no private phones at that time).  They also ran a messenger service.

 

The William S. Brighton sons operated a freight service and dairy, supplying the canyon with a good deal of fresh milk.  They also had two saddle horses.  Aunt Clara made bread (the best ever baked), and they sold fresh warm bread as long as it lasted.  Aunt Clara, as she was called by many, never sat down except to eat until she got into bed.  She was a grand lady, loved by all. 

 

A short time after W. S. built the new Brighton store, he leased it out.  Shortly after he sold it to a man by the name of Sheats.  Will sold some land to Dr. Anderson.  Robert also sold two acres to Henry Lawrence who in turn sold some of his to Godbes', Brooks', and Browns'.  Another early settler was Eric Butler who had a sawmill just at the base of Mt. Millicent in the flat.  He supplied lumber for some of the homes.

 

Judge Powers took up summer residence in Brighton for the health of his son Roger, who was in poor health.  Clara Brighton, the wife of Will, nursed the tiny baby to health, having a baby daughter Irene near the same age.  Judge Powers built a home on some government property on the side hill below Mt. Millicent, among the trees, rocks, and flowers.  The Powers' spent many happy summers there.  The Haynes' and Sadlers' also had homes among the crags near the Powers' home.  Other early settlers were the Rogers', Hamptons', Howatts', Putnames', Whitneys', and Reeds.

 

As noted above, Silver Lake was named by Catherine Bow Brighton.  According to some, Lake Mary was named after the wife of an artist named Borneman.  Others claim it was named by William S. after his daughter who was buried at sea.  This beautiful lake was at one base of Mt. Millicent and Wolverine.  It has an island of beautiful rocks, flowers, and trees.  The water is very deep, and one feels so small when one is near the sparkling cold water and the stillness.  This lake was the most beautiful of any in the district.

 

Lake Phoebe was a small beautiful lake a little below Lake Mary with its deep still pools and shady trees, leaping fish, and chirping birds with perhaps a tree squirrel flitting here and there among the branches of the pines and a few willows dipping their branches in the cool water.  Today this beautiful lake lays buried beneath a reservoir.

 

The beautiful island in Lake Mary has also been buried together with the beautiful pines lining its shore.  The grassy little meadow to the west of the lake where a small stream rose among the rocks to find its way to the lake, and the sand bar it formed are gone.  This was a favorite place for our ancestors to fish.  All this has been overtaken by man in his march of progress, and is another city reservoir.

 

Above Lake Mary a short distance is Lake Martha.  It is a beautiful setting surrounded by cliffs, a beautiful meadow, pines, and willows.  It has an island.  No fish are in this lake since its inlet is not sufficiently large to keep it fresh enough for trout during the winter.  It is believed that Lakes Phoebe and Martha were named by Bishop John Sharp of the 20th Ward and Mrs. Brighton.

 

A short distance beyond Martha sits an entirely different lake of great depth and whose island is of black rocks.  A lofty barren mountain rises from the south with a barren sunbathed peak to the west.  This lake is the highest in this range of the Wasatch.  There is a fine sand bar at the entrance to the lake and one enjoys wading along the edge.  It is the only lake not surrounded by trees.  This lake was named after Catherine Brighton, the wife of William S.

 

Lake Catherine was stocked with native trout by the Brighton boys, but its inlet wasn't large enough to supply enough air during the winter for them to survive.  Several years later, Dan H. Brighton helped Nobel Jacklin and R. S. Terry stock Lake Catherine with Mackinaw trout, a deep water fish, which seemed to do well in its waters.

 

At the top of the ridge, above Lake Catherine, three canyons meet — Big Cottonwood, Little Cottonwood, and American Fork canyons.  Many folks give up before climbing to this last beautiful lake.  Catherine is the headwater of Big Cottonwood Creek.

 

A vivid description of the lakes of the Brighton Basin is given by Alfred Lambourne.  (See "A Group of Wasatch Lakes", Improvement Era, Part 2, Vol 27, September 1924, pg. 1041.)

 

Twin Lakes were named so because they were so much alike.  These lakes also had beautiful settings.  On the north are mountains with great limestone croppings.  Gnarly pinion pines grow on the side hills.  One can now go to Lake Mary to Twin by a trail which was made after these two beautiful lakes were buried by the giant dam put across the little valley to create a city reservoir.

 

There was once an old cabin between Twin Lakes built by a miner named Bob Nelson.  Nelson was later killed by a snowslide.  He used to spend his summers in Brighton.  His property was a pretty place with a stream running between the two lakes, moss, grass, trees, and willows.  This scene is also buried below the big Twin Lake reservoir.  The upper lake had a sand bar.  It was a fine place to sit or stand to fish.  One could take a lunch and stay all day at the lakes. 

 

Dan Brighton and D. F. Walker, Jr. stocked Twin Lakes with fish his mother had caught in Silver Lake.  They were taken with hook and line, put in buckets, and carried by horseback to the lakes.  The boys stopped to freshen the water whenever they crossed a stream enroute.

 

A few years later a Butler boy saw a large fish as he was crossing a stream flowing out of Twin Lakes.  He killed it with his ax, and a man by the name of Wilson caught over 50 lbs. of trout in the lakes that day.

 

Will and Tom Brighton also first stocked Lake Mary, Phoebe, and Dog Lake.  Mt. Millicent was named after Millicent Godbe Brooks.

 

Mt. Majestic was originally called Clayton's Peak after Professor Clayton, a geologist and engineer.  Lying to the southeast of the resort, Majestic is the highest mountain in the area.

 

About 1886 or 1887 Daniel H. Brighton cut poles and erected the first telephone line crossing through Brighton from the Cresent Mine to Alta.  Dan got $150 for his work and gave his father $25 for getting him the job.  Dan had the first stable of saddle horses at Brighton.  He owned the first donkeys.  He ran the first stage up Cottonwood canyon.

 

December 3, 1882  Sunday Services in Assembly Hall.  Deseret News Services 2 p.m.  Among speakers Wm. S. Brighton.  Said he had been thankful that he had been called to go forth and preach the Gospel.  He had considerable difficulty in obtaining an audience to preach to in Scotland, where he had labored, and when he succeeded in gathering an audience and mentioned he was a Mormon and believed Joseph Smith to be a prophet, they would scatter and seemed as though they couldn't get away fast enough.