Six-year-old Archie Gartrell, Sr., stands at his desk in Brighton's one-room school in 1908. He became a butcher and farmer and in later years hauled local livestock to market: a man small of stature but able to handle the largest, crankiest steer.

Heart of old Brighton, the store of Quakers Edward Peirce and Isaac Hartshorne also was the post office and stage stop. Among their wares were fresh beef, lamb, "mackrel," staple groceries, yard goods and findings, boots and shoes, farm goods, and miscellany. His wife Sophie chose the name Brighton for the post office, thereby giving the name to the village. Deborah Iddings Willson, 103-year-old granddaughter of the Peirces, remembers the jolting stage rides to the railhead at Laurel. Today the store site is the home of Maude Hill.