Although there are earlier dates of recorded activity in the communities of Brighton -- the Rices in the McColloms area in 1819 and 1820, and Samuel Johnson (1815) and Moses Follensby (1823) in Paul Smiths — the lasting settlements seem to have begun about the time the Town was formed. Amiel McCollom settled and began to farm in 1849; Oliver Keese and Thomas Tomlinson had dammed the St. Regis and started a lumber business in 1851; James M. Wardner was farming in Rainbow Lake in 1854; newly married Paul and Lydia Martin Smith opened their first hotel in 1859, and the Hobarts were farming in Gabriels by 1860.

Garondah Cottage at Rainbow Lake in the early 1900s.

St. Margaret's building at the Gabriels Sanatorium.

Much has changed since the beginning of the twentieth centery. The hotels at Rainbow Lake and McColloms are gone. Paul Smith's, in accordance with the will of Phelps Smith, is now a college. The Gabriels San is a minimum security correctional facility. Both of these institutions provide employment for many of the town's residents. Brighton still has four churches and a chapel although they are not the same ones that were here in 1900. Both railroad stations and one post office have closed and as a result of centralization there are no longer any schools in Brighton. There are, however, at least three families who are homeschoolers.

The entrepreneurial spirit which made Gabriels a bustling commercial hamlet during the years when the San was operating still thrives. Brighton has many small successful businesses — many of them home-based — which offer a variety of services including child care, gifts and crafts, cleaning services, publishing support, automotive service, tree care and removal, camp caretaking, ironwork, sugaring and more. Perhaps the least changed features of Brighton are the many 'camps' which line the shores of Rainbow and Osgood and the St. Regis Lakes. And, there are still dedicated people farming the fields in Gabriels.

The Town Historians are Pat and Tom Willis. If you have any comments or further information regarding town history that you would like to share could you please contact the Willises at (518) 327-3433, or pwillis@northnet.org. Their U.S. mail address is PO Box 34, Rainbow Lake NY 12976.