William Meek came to the area from Ohio in 1828 and in 1829 purchased 121 acres where the Fawn River joins the St. Joseph River. His family and four other families arrived in 1829, and in 1831 the village was platted. Meek built a grist mill and a saw mill, and by 1837 the settlement had many homes and businesses, including carriage and wagon factories, blacksmiths, three saddle shops, three mercantile houses, Meek’s gristmill and sawmills, a shingle mill and flour mills, a fanning mill factory, several mechanics, cabinet and furniture shops, a foundry, tanneries, and farm machinery and equipment factories. The Village of Constantine was incorporated in 1837, but for several years people in the surrounding area continued to call it Meek’s Mills. In 1836 Meek sold his property and followed the frontier west into Iowa.