Michigan was originally Canadian, and became a part of our Country in 1783. In 1787 it was part of the Northwest Territory, in 1800 part of the Indiana Territory. It was established as the Michigan Territory in 1805. Land opened for settlement after 1818, and Michigan became a state in 1837, the 26th state.
First to come here were the descendents of John Putnam of Massachusetts, an English family. These families came from all the New England states and some passed time in New York before heading further west. Folks born in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and to a small extent Connecticut all belong to this family. The spelling will mostly be Putnam, but many will use the Putman variant.
Second to arrive were the descendents of Jan Putman (Johannes Poutman) originally from the Albany, New York area, a Dutch family. A very, very few of these Dutch Putmans strayed into Vermont, and one family into New Jersey prior to heading west. The Dutch will be mostly coming out of New York State, and will primarily use the Putman spelling.
Since these folks are not my kin, I don't have them perfectly placed, but will do the best I can to help sort them out for you.
I do not believe that any of our Southern Putmans and Putnams ever went into these cooler climes at any time, probably for darn good reason; didn’t like snow and didn’t want to work the Ford assembly lines.