The first white man known to have lived in Tippecanoe Township was a Frenchman, William Burnett, who established a trading post between the mouth of Burnett's Creek and the Tippecanoe River. Burnett's daughter married John Davis, who established a ferry on the Wabash River near the outlet of Burnett's Creek in 1823. The ferry remained in operation until the bridge at this site was built in 1912.