This site has just begun construction, we look forward to providing information about the Ridge Road area between Pearl Road and Thornton known as Polish Village.
Greenbrier Becomes Parma
Benajah Fay, a native of Massachusetts, who came out from Lewis county, New York, was the first settler in Greenbrier, as Parma was called before it was organized. In 1816 he located upon the Plympton tract. His family, consisting of himself, wife and twelve children, journeyed with an ox-team and one horse. Upon his arrival he had to cut a road through the woods to his farm. He opened a tavern in 1819 on the old stage road, in a double log house, opposite the present residence of J. W. Fay, which, as “B. Fay’s Inn,” was a famous landmark for many years. Mr. Fay was a man of mark in the new community, served in various local offices, and was always in high esteem as a useful and honored citizen.
On the 7th of March 1826, Greenbrier, which until then had been a portion of the civil township of Brooklyn, was formed into a separate township and given the name of Parma, after the city in Italy. In that same year Benajah Fay built a framed tavern and in 1832 replaced it with a brick one, which was the first brick house in the township.
The area's rich ethnic heritage is derived from the largest segments of its population, the Germans, Poles, Italians, Slovaks, and Irish, who have chosen to make Parma their home over the years.
