In 1763 England took possession of all French territory in North America east of the Mississippi River after winning the Seven Years' War.

They used the ancient overland and waterborne trade routes of the First Nations, while providing superior tools and weapons in exchange for valuable furs.

Following the American Revolution, Great Britain ceded portions of the Province of Quebec to the newly independent United States of America.

By an ordinance of the Congress of the United States passed on July 13, 1787, under the Articles of Confederation, the whole of the territory of the United States lying northwest of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River, though still occupied by the British, was organized as the Northwest Territory.

This original Wayne County was created on August 11, 1796; very large, it included all of the lower peninsula of Michigan, parts of Northern Ohio and Indiana, and also portions of Wisconsin and Illinois.

What is now Lapeer County, on May 7, 1800, was considered part of the Territory of Indiana, which included all of the lower peninsula of Michigan.

In 1807 local Indian tribes: the Ottawa, Ojibwa (Chippewa), Wyandot and Potawatomi, ceded the land of Southeast Michigan to the United States in the Treaty of Detroit.

The first European-American settler in Lapeer was Alvin N. Hart, who was born in Cornwall, Connecticut on February 11, 1804.

[6] The plat was registered in Pontiac, December 14, 1833, in Oakland County's Associate Judge Bagley's court.

Alvin Hart became a state senator in 1843, representing Lapeer, Oakland, Genesee, Shiawassee, Tuscola, Saginaw counties and the entire Upper Peninsula.

Lapeer is one of the five counties that form the peninsula projecting into Lake Huron known as The Thumb, which in turn is a sub-region of Mid Michigan.

The county government operates the jail, maintains rural roads, operates the major local courts, keeps files of deeds and mortgages, maintains vital records, administers public health regulations, runs county parks, and participates with the state in the provision of welfare and other social services.

The county board of commissioners controls the budget but has only limited authority to make laws or ordinances.

In Michigan, most local government functions — police and fire, building and zoning, tax assessment, street maintenance, etc.