The township was the former location of several French-Canadian fur traders migrating south from New France and north from French Louisiana during the years of the French and Indian War (1755-1763), when the Kingdom of France ceded its North American possessions in Canada to the British, and Louisiana to the Kingdom of Spain in 1763. Many Native American tribes frequented this area, and hunted and fished along with the French. Gabriel Hunot traded here in the 1780s, and fur trader Jean B. Flammand (aka "John B. Flemming") came here to trade about 1805 and remained as a permanent settler. "Flemmings Cove" was named for him.