Fergus, VL, Ontario (1861 census)

Fergus, VL was a village in Ontario, recorded in the 1861 Census of Canada with a population of 1,117. The community is grounded to Wikidata Q5444155. The administrative centroid was at approximately 43.708°N, 80.382°W.

Population

In 1861, Fergus, VL had a population of 1,117: 579 male and 538 female residents.

Population trajectory across census years

Cross-year identity established by spatial polygon overlap (SAME_AS chains across the Canadian Census Subdivision boundary files).

Boundary continuity (non-identical overlaps)

Spatial polygon overlaps with adjacent census years where the boundary shifted enough that the SAME_AS chain didn't merge them. These show where the territory came from and went to even when it isn't tracked as the same persistent place.

Earlier boundary forms

• In an earlier year, this CSD was contained in Nichol, 1851 (2.1% share).

Neighbouring Census Subdivisions in 1861

In the 1861 census, Fergus, VL shared boundaries with:

• Nichol

Full census record, 1861

The 1861 census recorded 95 measurements for this Census Subdivision across 6 categories.

Population & families (1861). This community's record includes 1,117 total population, 579 males, Male members of the family who are present: 565, 538 females, Female members of the family who are present: 531, 388 single males, 347 single females, 179 married males, 175 married females, 106 males attending school, 71 females attending school, 28 male births, 24 female births, 16 widowed females, Males present who are not members of the family: 14, 12 widowed males, Females present who are not members of the family: 7, 1 lunatic males. (Source: 1861 Census of Canada, V1T5.)

Age structure (1861). This community's record includes 71 married males aged 30 to 40, 71 single males aged 20 to 30, 67 single males aged 15 to 20, 64 single females aged 10 to 15, 60 married females aged 30 to 40, 59 married females aged 20 to 30, 57 females aged 5 to 10, 54 single males aged 10 to 15, 51 males aged 5 to 10, 44 single females aged 20 to 30, 40 married males aged 20 to 30, 39 married males aged 40 to 50, 38 single females aged 15 to 20, 32 married females aged 40 to 50, 27 females aged 2 to 3, 26 males aged 4 to 5, 25 females aged 4 to 5, 24 females age 3 to 4, 23 males aged 2 to 3, 22 males aged 1 to 2, 21 females aged 1 to 2, 21 males aged 3 to 4, 17 married males aged 50 to 60, 17 single males aged 30 to 40, 16 married females aged 50 to 60, 12 single females aged 30 to 40, 9 married males aged 60 to 70, 6 single females aged 40 to 50, 5 married females aged 60 to 70, 5 single males aged 40 to 50, 5 widowed females aged 50 to 60, 4 widowed females aged 70 to 80, 3 single females aged 50 to 60, 3 widowed females aged 40 to 50, 3 widowed males aged 60 to 70, 2 married females aged 15 to 20, 2 married males aged 70 to 80, 2 single females aged 60 to 70, 2 single males aged 60 to 70, 2 widowed females aged 60 to 70, 2 widowed males aged 40 to 50, 2 widowed males aged 50 to 60, 2 widowed males aged 80 to 90, 1 married females aged 80 to 90, 1 married males aged 80 to 90, 1 single males aged 50 to 60, 1 widowed females aged 30 to 40, 1 widowed females aged 80 to 90, 1 widowed males aged 30 to 40, 1 widowed males aged 70 to 80, 1 widowed males aged 90 to 100. (Source: 1861 Census of Canada, V1T5.)

Ethnic origin (1861). This community's record includes 529 persons native to Canada, not of French origin, 369 persons originating in Scotland, 125 persons originating in Ireland, 70 persons originating in England or Wales, 9 persons originating in the United States, 4 persons originating in New Brunswick, 4 persons originating in the West Indies, 3 persons originating in Germany or Holland, 2 persons originating in Nova Scotia or Prince Edward Island, 1 persons originating in all other places, 1 persons originating in France. (Source: 1861 Census of Canada, V1T1.)

Agriculture (1861). This community's record includes $12,414 value all livestock, 122 milk cows, 106 acres of farmland held by townspeople who are not farmers, 100 swine, 93 horses aged over 3 years, 19 sheep. (Source: 1861 Census of Canada, V2T11.)

Manufacturing & industry (1861). This community's record includes $2,520 value carriages for pleasure (dollars), $2,140 value carriages for hire (dollars), 51 carriages for pleasure, 31 carriages for hire. (Source: 1861 Census of Canada, V2T11.)

Deaths & mortality (1861). This community's record includes 5 total number of deaths, Deaths in the past year among males of all ages: 4, Deaths in the past year among males under age 1: 4, Deaths in the past year among females of all ages: 1, Deaths in the past year among females under age 1: 1. (Source: 1861 Census of Canada, V1T5.)

People with Dictionary of Canadian Biography entries

The Dictionary of Canadian Biography includes biographies of 1 person connected to this place who were alive in 1861, listed below by birth year. Each name links to that person's DCB entry.

Identifiers

• TCP UID: ON103006 — year-scoped identifier from the Canadian Census Subdivision boundary file
• Persistent place ID: PLACE_ON152022 — computed from spatial-overlap chains across census years
• Wikidata: Q5444155
• Wikipedia (EN): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fergus,_Ontario

Sources

Census tabulations from the 1861 Census of Canada, transcribed and georeferenced by the Canadian Peoples / TCP project, hosted at the HGIS Lab, University of Saskatchewan. Persistent place identity computed from spatial-overlap chains across all available census years (1851–1921). Identity grounding to Wikidata performed via the HGIS Canada Knowledge Graph project's MCP-assisted disambiguation pipeline. See the About / Methodology page for the full data pipeline.

Cite this page

Clifford, J. (2026). "Fergus, VL, Ontario (1861 census)" in HGIS Canada Knowledge Graph. Retrieved from https://jimclifford.ca/hgiscanada/places/on/fergus-vl-on103006-1861/.