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BROOKLYN - IRISH HILLS - GRASS LAKE AREA COMMUNITY RESOURCE GUIDE
BROOKLYN: A HISTORY With more than 50 lakes within a 10-mile radius of the village of Brooklyn, it’s easy to see why this area is known as the “Heart of the Lakes.” Located in the scenic Irish Hills, Brooklyn was originally known for being a highly anticipated stagecoach stop along the Detroit to Chicago route. Since then, it has developed into a cozy town full of unique small businesses, while the lakes and many parks draw visitors for outdoor recreational activities. In addition, Michigan International Speedway is a destination for tourists from all over the country. The first officially recognized inhabitants of the Brooklyn area were the Native Americans mainly from the Potawatomi tribe who hunted for deer and wild turkeys, fished in the lakes, gathered honey, and picked huckleberries and cranberries. They also created numerous well-worn trails through the wilderness as they traveled. These ancient trails were later used by European settlers who made their way from the eastern states to the area that would become Brooklyn. In the Treaty of Saginaw in 1819, the United States government negotiated with prominent Native American chiefs, resulting in the U.S. government taking possession of most of the land in lower Michigan. In the 1830s and 1840s, early pioneers began to purchase the land that would eventually become Brooklyn and the surrounding areas. An early timeline, up to the 2020s, traces some of the major developments of Brooklyn that forged the thriving village it has become today.
1830s
In 1832, New York Baptist minister Calvin Swain filed the first land claim in the area that would become Brooklyn. He originally named the settlement Swainsville. In 1834, Calvin Swain built a sawmill and harvested the first wheat crop. In 1834, the Baptist Church of Brooklyn was organized, with Reverend Calvin Swain at its head. In 1834, Royal Watkins and his wife Sally established a farm that
encompassed over 1,000 acres of cultivated pastures, and grazing land for cattle and sheep, straddling Jackson and Washtenaw counties. The Watkins farm was known to hire and help laborers without regard to race, including Native Americans and escaped and self-freed slaves from the South. In 1836, the community voted to change the town’s name from Swainsville to Brooklyn, named after Brooklyn, New York. In 1838, the First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn was organized, with a list of 13 members.
1840s
In the 1840s, Sylvester Walker’s farmhouse tavern at Cambridge Junction was a favorite resting spot for stagecoach travelers going on the five day trip from Detroit to Chicago. Though it was a popular place, it offered little in the way of modern comforts. There were few sleeping rooms and travelers often shared beds or slept on the floor. The tavern also served as a community center, and church services were held in the bar on Sundays. In the 1840s, the A. P. Cook Mercantile Building held the name Cook, Austin, & Sherman. It was said to have possibly been Jackson County’s oldest business site. In 1847, Kentucky slave-trader George Brasher and seven other men attempted to capture John Felix White at the farm of Royal and Sally Watkins. White was a self-freed slave who had escaped from Kentucky and was working as a laborer at the Watkins farm. Watkins, with the help of prominent underground railroad activist Laura Smith Haviland and other local abolitionists, helped John White escape capture.
1850s
In 1853, Walker’s tavern was so popular that he built Brick Walker Tavern across the street. This location offered private rooms, a dining hall, and on the third story, a dance hall. In 1856, Brooklyn founder Calvin Swain died. He is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Napoleon.
