Huron Potawatomi Village / Spring Arbor

As early as 1825 large numbers of Potawatomi encamped at this location. One of the most prominent Huron Potawatomi located here was Wabkezhik (Whapcazeek), who was wounded during the 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe Creek when General William Henry Harrison’s troops dispersed a concentration of Indians near present-day Lafayette, Indiana. At negotiations for the 1833 Chicago Treaty, Wabkezhik was one of many Michigan Potawatomi who opposed federal government resettlement plans. Spring Arbor White settlers arrived in Spring Arbor Township around 1831. In May 1835 Methodist deacon William Smith and Dr. Benjamin Packard platted the 128-lot village of Spring Arbor on the site of a Potawatomi Indian settlement bounded by present-day South Cross and Hammond Roads. The men then established a Methodist seminary in the village. The panic of 1837 discouraged investment and led to the demise of the school. In 1839 Methodists moved the seminary to Albion. In 1845 the present village was founded one mile northeast of here.