Highlights in the History of the Township of Moira

• The first settlers came to this area, then part of Dickinson, in 1803.  Appleton Foote, agent for Gilchrist and Fowler, to whom the town had been apportioned, erected a crude accommodation for travelers passing through the area in great numbers at that time.  Mr. Foote and Benjamin Seeley erected the first mills that same year in what is now Brushton.
• In 1803, Jonathan Lawrence and Joseph Plumb of Vermont came into town and made improvements.  The following year Mr. Lawrence brought his family to the area and became one of the most prominent and influential pioneers of Franklin County.
• Just south of the four corners on land owned by Mr. Lawrence, the first school was built around 1807.  The first post office was established in 1808 by Appleton Foote.
• In 1817, the first store was established  by Clark Lawrence, son of Jonathan, and was located on the site of the Moira Hotel.  Clark became postmaster, and for thirty years the post office was located in his store.
• On April 15, 1828, the present township of Moira was formed from Dickinson.  Jason Pierce served as its first supervisor.  Moira was named for the Earl of Moira in Ireland.
• In 1833, the Union Church was the first church built in Moira at the site of the present day Park Methodist Church. 
• In 1835, Henry N. Brush purchased the mills located on the Little Salmon River and made many improvements.  The area soon became known as Brush's Mills.  In 1849, the post office was established in Brush's Mills with Mr. Brush serving as postmaster.
• In 1849, the town of Moira levied the sum of $400 to build the Town Hall which now houses the Moira Historical Association Museum.
• The Northern Railroad was completed in 1850, and Moira was an important junction for it and the Northern Adirondack Railroad which ran south to St. Regis Falls in support of the vast logging operations in 1883.  In 1889, for a brief time a railroad was built from Moira to Bombay in association with the Central Vermont Railroad.  These tracks were taken up around 1900.
• On October 1, 1877, the village of Brush's Mills was officially renamed Brushton.
• In 1877, Moira had a newspaper called the Northern Adirondack;  Brush's Mills had a paper called the North Star which burned in 1884.  In 1899, a paper called Facts and Fallacies was established in Brushton.
• Moira suffered two devastating fires, one in 1900 and one in 1926, which destroyed the entire block of stores located on the west side of Depot Street.