[5] In the early 19th century when the first white settlers arrived in Southeastern Wisconsin, the Potawatomi and Menominee Indians inhabited the land now occupied by the Town of West Bend.

[6] In 1831, the Menominee surrendered their claims to the land to the United States Federal Government through the Treaty of Washington.

[7][8] While many Native people moved west of the Mississippi River to Kansas, some chose to remain, and were referred to as "strolling Potawatomi" in contemporary documents because many of them were migrants who subsisted by squatting on their ancestral lands, which were now owned by white settlers.

[9] In the mid-1800s, there was a large Native American village on the shore of Silver Lake in the Town of West Bend.

[9] In 1845, the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature authorized the construction of a road to connect Fond du Lac and Milwaukee with a new settlement near the halfway point to provide provisions and overnight accommodations for travelers.

[11] By the end of 1845, they had purchased eight eighty-acre tracts of land along the river, and invited local landowner E. N. Higgins to join their venture as well.

West Bend, Cedarburg, and Grafton vied for position of Washington County seat and the material advantages it would entail.

[15][16] A railroad station was constructed in West Bend in 1873, bringing new residents, businesses and economic connections into the community.

[11][17] The City of West Bend experienced dramatic population growth during the post–World War II economic expansion.

As automobiles became more commonplace, more people moved to the city and commuted for work, taking advantage of new roads such as U.S. Route 45, which connected the West Bend area to Milwaukee.