Wayne County

Detroit

The site of a succession of Indian villages, their recorded names including Yondotiga, Waweatunong, Tsychsardonia, and Teuchsa Grondie. Antoine de La Mothe, Sier de Cadillac founded the present city in July of 1701. Detroit was named after the French word for strait (Dètroit) because of its location on the river connecting Lakes Erie and St. Clair.

Among the early French settlers, these later had and still have streets named after them: Beaubien, Rivard, Dequindre, Chene, Dubois, and Joseph Campau. The first settlement was called Fort Pontchartrain du Dètroit after Jerome Phelypeaux, Count de Pontchartrain who, as minister of marine, decided Cadillac's proposal for the settlement.

In 1751 the name was shortened to Detroit. Not long after from the period of 1763 to 1783 Detroit became a British possession. Again, not long after, the U.S. gained jurisdiction over the land, however they did not occupy it until sometime in 1796.

On January 1, 1803 Frederick Bates became the city's first postmaster. This was also the first post office in Michigan. This area was incorporated as a town on January 1,1803 and a city on October 24, 1815. The city was first platted in 1806 by Augustus B. Woodward, after whom Detroit's main thoroughfare, Woodward Avenue, was named.

From 1805 to 1837 Detroit was the Territorial Capital and from 1837 to 1847 Detroit was the State capital.

Plymouth

Plymouth was built where three Potawatomi Indian trails converged at the Rouge River. The first settlers arrived in 1825, and named the township in honor of the first American settlement at Plymouth Rock where some of them had lived.