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These settlers came principally from the state of New York. They endured many privations and hardships in clearing up their farms and making themselves homes in the wilds of northern Pennsylvania. Several times when the water was low in the Cowanesque and Tioga rivers, they were obliged to go to Painted Post to get their milling done--a distance of about fifty miles. The forests were full of wild animals, and much trouble and annoyance were experienced by the settlers, from them. The deer however, were plenty, and in season they were certain of an abundance of meat, which they preserved by drying and smoking. It was suitable medical attendance, sugar, tea, coffee and calico, and the thousand and one articles which go to make life agreeable that they were deprived of. But they perserved, and others took courage from their example; the forest was cut down, comfortable and elegant dwellings were erected, and the fields of waving grain, soft meadows, and green pastures, where herds of cattle and sheep are grazing, are the fruits of their perseverance and their triumph over the rugged hand of nature.
--Titus Ives erected the first framed house in Brookfield.
--William Simmons was the first merchant in Brookfield
--The first orchard in Brookfield township was set out by Elihu Hill.
--The first road in the township of Brookfield was the "North Road."
--The first church edifice erected in the township was in the year 1858.
--The first justices of the peace were Titus Ives and Godfrey Bowman.
--Men worked for a yard of calico per day in the early settlement of Brookfield.
--The first tavern or public house erected in the township was by William Corwin, in 1858.
--Rev. Thomas Magee held the first religious services in the township. He was a Methodist.
--Rev. Nathan Fellows held a series of revival meetings in the year 1836, making many conversions.
--The Free Will Baptists effected a church organization in 1840, and 1861 a church edifice was erected.
--The first school in the township was taught by Asa Bushnell, in the year 1817, at the house of Curtis Cady.
--Close Communion Baptists organized a church May 25th, 1848, and erected a church edifice in 1859; first meeting June, 1860.
--The first marriage in the township was that of William Simmons and Mary A. Brown. Simmons was about sixteen years of age.
--The first church, (M. E. Church) was organized in 1818. Ira Baker, Amos Baker, Samuel Baker, John Joseph, Azel Nobles and their wives, were among the first members. Hannah Joseph, Deborah Joseph, Curtis Cady, were also members.
--The Rev. Samuel Conant taught the first school in the first school house erected in the township. The school house was a log one, with desks and seats made from split boards of basswood. Anna VanCamp and Luman Seeley were his successors.
--William and John Simmons were for many years justices of the peace in the western portion of the township; John G. Holmes many years in the eastern portion.
--A cheese factory was erected by Wood & McBride in 1866.
--The first mowing machines used in the township were owned by William Simmons and D. W. Nobles.
