The area that is now Wardsville lies within the traditional territories of Indigenous nations of the western Great Lakes region. It was included in the lands acquired by the
Crown under McKee's Purchase of 1790 (also known as the McKee Treaty and Treaty 2)—signed by chiefs of the
Odawa,
Potawatomi,
Ojibwa, and
Wendat nations. In 1794, the Crown granted land to George Ward, a former
British Army sergeant born in
Queen's County, Ireland. The Hesse District Land Board awarded him Lot No. 9 in the Third Township, a parcel on the north side of the
Thames River. (and later the Long Woods / Longwoods Road). By the early 1800s, the road had become a principal overland route between the Detroit frontier and the British administrative centre at
London. Ward’s property lay roughly midway between the two. With approval obtained through petition to the colonial authorities, Ward built a stopping place at the point where the Long Woods Road crossed Paint Creek. George Ward and his wife, Margaret Shaw, are buried in the Wardsville Municipal Cemetery. Their monument describes them as "the first settlers in this district and from whom the community derived its name." == Demographics ==