Port Elgin, VL, Ontario (1881 census)

Port Elgin, VL was a village in Ontario, recorded in the 1881 Census of Canada with a population of 1,400. The community is grounded to Wikidata Q7230598. The administrative centroid was at approximately 44.451°N, 81.393°W.

Population

In 1881, Port Elgin, VL had a population of 1,400: 713 male and 687 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 Saugeen, 1871 (1.5% share).

Neighbouring Census Subdivisions in 1881

In the 1881 census, Port Elgin, VL shared boundaries with:

• Saugeen

Full census record, 1881

The 1881 census recorded 32 measurements for this Census Subdivision across 4 categories.

Population & families (1881). This community's record includes 1,400 total population, 713 males, 687 females, 444 married persons, 255 families, 225 married females, 219 married males, 39 widowed persons, 31 widowed females, 8 widowed males. (Source: 1881 Census of Canada, V1T1.)

Age structure (1881). This community's record includes 917 single persons under 18, 486 single males under 18, 431 single females under 18. (Source: 1881 Census of Canada, V1T1.)

Buildings & housing (1881). This community's record includes 253 inhabited houses, 253 occupied houses, 20 uninhabited houses, 2 houses under construction. (Source: 1881 Census of Canada, V1T1.)

Agriculture (1881). This community's record includes 9,430 bushels of turnips, 8,151 bushels of winter wheat, 4,216 bushels of potatoes, 2,360 bushels of oats, 1,855 bushels of other root crops, 1,574 bushels of peas and beans, 365 acres of wheat, 190 bushels of barley, 183 tons of hay, 180 acres of hay crops, 101 bushels of corn, 67 bushels of buckwheat, 32 acres of potatoes, 23 bushels of spring wheat, 2 bushels of clover, timothy, or other grass seed. (Source: 1881 Census of Canada, V3T24.)

Residents in 1881

The 1881 census residents page for this Census Subdivision lists 1,400 individuals enumerated here, with name, age, sex, religion, ethnic origin, birthplace, and occupation. Source: TCP/Dillon 1881 Canadian Census deposit at Borealis.

Identifiers

• TCP UID: ON177008 — year-scoped identifier from the Canadian Census Subdivision boundary file
• Persistent place ID: PLACE_ON104028 — computed from spatial-overlap chains across census years
• Wikidata: Q7230598
• Wikipedia (EN): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Elgin,_Ontario
• Wikipédia (FR): https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Elgin_(Ontario)

Sources

Census tabulations from the 1881 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). "Port Elgin, VL, Ontario (1881 census)" in HGIS Canada Knowledge Graph. Retrieved from https://jimclifford.ca/hgiscanada/places/on/port-elgin-vl-on177008-1881/.