To the west it was bordered by Dearborn and Taylor Townships, with the primary boundary being Pelham Road.

Organized in 1827, the entire township has since been incorporated, and includes the cities of Melvindale, Allen Park, Lincoln Park, River Rouge, Ecorse, Southgate, Wyandotte, and the Boynton and Oakwood Heights neighborhoods of Detroit.

Although French explorers, missionaries, and traders frequented the area, the first existing record of a white settler owning land dates to 1776, when the Pottawatomi ceded a large tract of land to Pierre St. Cosme.

One boundary of the ceded land came to be known as "St. Cosme Line" and later became part of the route of Southfield Road.

The first known permanent settler in what would become Ecorse Township was Pierre Michel Campau, who arrived in 1795.