The Town of Brighton covers 8340 square miles in Franklin County, New York, at an altitude averaging 1640 feet. Brighton lies in three different major watersheds: the Saranac/Chazy-Lake Champlain watershed, the St. Regis-St. Lawrence watershed, and the Salmon/Trout-St. Lawrence watershed. Brighton is 26% wetlands and nearly the entire town is underlain by a high-quality aquifer. Many of the wetland areas are home to rare and threatened species such as spruce grouse, moose and three-toed woodpecker.
Approximately 47% of the land in Brighton is state-owned. Paul Smith's College ownership accounts for an additional 20% of town acreage. Within the Town are the small settlements of Gabriels, Keese Mills, Onchiota, Paul Smiths, Rainbow Lake and McColloms.
Leon Redwood served as superintendent of highways in the 1960s.
- Brighton Town Hall
- Brighton Notables
- Brighton Area Guides
- Brighton History Days
- Brighton Curing Timeline
- Curing in Brighton
- How Brighton Got Its Name
- Paul Smith's Hotel
- Paul Smith's Electric Railroad
- Sunnyside Hotel
- St. Gabriel
- First Methodist Episcopal Church of Brighton
- St. Regis Presbyterian
- St. John's in the Wilderness
- Benjamin A. Muncil
- Famous Visitors
History of Clinton and Franklin counties, New York, (1880) p. 398, gives the population of the Town of Brighton as follows:
1860 | 208 |
1865 | 150 |
1870 | 204 |
1875 | 247 |
The Palladium Malone, Thursday, Dec 19, 1867
Abstracts of Accounts audited by the Board of Town Auditors of the town of Brighton, at their annual session, Nov. 7, 1867:
Names and Nature of Demand | Claim | Allow'd | ||
1 | J M Wardner, | supervisor | $29.81 | $29.81 |
2 | F T B Weller, | town clerk | $12.00 | $12.00 |
3 | A C McCollum, | com. of highways | $15.00 | $15.00 |
4 | Heman G. Wilcox, | assessor and insp'r | $16.50 | $16.50 |
5 | John Redwood, | " | $12.75 | $12.75 |
6 | Luther M. Collins, | " | $7.50 | $7.50 |
7 | Joshua Otis, | inspector | $6.50 | $6.50 |
8 | J Quarter, | " | $11.00 | $11.00 |
9 | S Wardner, | com. highways, 1866 | $8.75 | $8.75 |
10 | D C Skiff, | justice of the peace | $8.00 | $8.00 |
11 | Wm Otis, | constable | $2.55 | $2.55 |
12 | A K Wilcox, | " | $8.35 | $8.35 |