Pioneer Spirit by Sergio Mazzotta, Mike Mascarin, & Steve Lauzon, 2000 Before becoming an industrial town, the area known as Ford City was predominantly a francophone community in the mid-1700s. Early settlers farmed narrow strips of land stretching back from the Detroit River for more than a mile. Francois Drouillard acquired a parcel of land (just east of Drouillard Road) during the 1820s and along with the neighbouring Maisonvilles, provided a right of way for the establishment of Drouillard Road in the early 1860s.