Ecorse Township is a defunct

civil township A civil township is a widely used unit of local government in the United States that is subordinate to a County (United States), county, most often in the northern and midwestern parts of the country. The term town is used in New England town, Ne ...

in Wayne County in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

Description

The township consisted of 54 mi² (140 km²), which included two small islands in the

Detroit River The Detroit River is an List of international river borders, international river in North America. The river, which forms part of the border between the U.S. state of Michigan and the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ont ...

. It was bordered to the north by Springwells Township with the boundary being the River Rouge. To the west it was bordered by Dearborn and Taylor Townships, with the primary boundary being Pelham Road. To the south it was bordered by Monguagon Township, and a small part of Brownstown Township, with the primary boundary being Pennsylvania Road. Finally, to the east, it was bordered by the

. Organized in 1827, the entire township has since been incorporated, and includes the cities of Melvindale, Allen Park,

Lincoln Park Lincoln Park is a park along Lake Michigan on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. Named after US president Abraham Lincoln, it is the city's largest public park and stretches for from Grand Avenue (500 N), on the south, to near Ardmore Avenu ...

, River Rouge, Ecorse, Southgate, Wyandotte, and the Boynton and Oakwood Heights neighborhoods of

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

History

Although French explorers, missionaries, and traders frequented the area, the first existing record of a white settler owning land dates to 1776, when the

Pottawatomi The Potawatomi (), also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains, upper Mississippi River, and western Great Lakes region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, ...

ceded a large tract of land to Pierre St. Cosme. One boundary of the ceded land came to be known as "St. Cosme Line" and later became part of the route of Southfield Road. In the late 18th century, many land grants in the area were awarded by the French crown. The first known permanent settler in what would become Ecorse Township was Pierre Michel Campau, who arrived in 1795. He settle in Southgate, which subsequently became a farming community. Other people from the Detroit area at the Rouge and

s followed him to Southgate. Some records indicate settlers near the mouth of the

Ecorse River The Ecorse River is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed November 7, 2011 river in southern Michigan. Because of its small size, it is often identified as Ecorse Creek. ...

as early as 1764. The township was established on April 12, 1827 along with eight other townships by the Michigan Territorial Legislature in a major reorganization of Wayne County.

References

{{reflist Defunct townships in Michigan Former townships in Wayne County, Michigan 1827 establishments in Michigan Territory Populated places established in 1827 1958 disestablishments in Michigan Populated places disestablished in 1958