Early Settlement

During the early years of the 19th century, settlers came from the East by way of the Erie Canal and steamboats on Lake Erie.  They followed the first inhabitants, the Native Americans, who hunted and trapped along the creeks and nearby Huron River.

Some early roads followed Native American trails coming north from Ohio.

An early settler, Prince Bennett, built the first frame house in the 1830’s.

During the time of the Underground Railroad a few “stations” such as farms, secretly existed in the area helping to transport “passengers,” runaway enslaved people, safely to freedom in Canada.  Prince Bennett’s house was reported to be one of them.