A Rich History

Brighton Township’s primary thoroughfare, Tuscarawas Road, closely follows a former Native American trail, The Great Path, which led from the forks of the Ohio to the Tuscarawas Valley and Central Ohio. In successive campaigns, beginning with Colonel Bouquet in 1763 (who camped near Dawson Ridge), armies moving westward followed the trail.

 

One of Bouquet’s engineers took note of the “luxuriant grass and fine drinking water in the branching stream that refreshed the animals.” In 1778, the site of today’s Seven Oaks Country Club was a point of rest and refuge for General Lachlan McIntosh and his troops during the American Revolution.

 

Brighton Township was formed in 1816 and, in addition to its residential character, contained small manufacturing firms such as the Morgan Carriage Works, built shortly after the Civil War. The one-room Richmond School house, restored to its former condition, opened for tours in 1969 as the Richmond Little Red School Museum.

 

Among the more significant local residences is the cut stone Wray Barrickman House, built in 1835 near Beaner Hollow Road, and Wolf Manor on Western Avenue. Other historically significant homes include the Isaac Morgan House on Gypsy Glen Road, built of logs circa 1830, which today has a large modern addition behind the house and is owned by John and Gail Rackley; and the William Scott House, dating to a two-room log structure built circa 1824, and significantly expanded in 1845, at the corner of Tuscarawas Road and Wishart Drive.

 

For many years, one of the foremost employers in the township has been Michael Baker International, famed for its civil engineering design of local and national landmarks, including the New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia and the Alaska Oil Pipeline, as well as many Western Pennsylvania highways and bridges.

 

Today, the township’s rich history is celebrated by the Brighton Township Historical Society and the Beaver Area Heritage Foundation.