Demography of Culross Township

Most of Bruce County was opened up for settlement at the Great Land Sale in Southampton in 1854. In the 1851 Census there were 2837 people in Bruce County. By 1861 this had increased to 27499 and by 1871 to 48515. By the 1870s the families of the original settlers were coming of age and outmigration began to the U.S. midwest and later to the Canadian West. As a result the population peaked about 1880 and today (1999) is little changed in number from a century ago.

The inhabitants of Culross Township in 1871 were largely from the British Isles with a large German minority and a few French (both from Quebec and France). The table below shows the religious and ethnic origins of the heads of families (numbering about 680 in all) in Culross in 1871.

Religion and Ethnic Origins in 1871 Census
	Presbyterian	Catholic	Methodist	Anglican	Lutheran	Baptist	Total
Scottish	31.6	3.1	1.9	0	0	0.4	36.9
Irish	13.0	6.9	6.5	4.7	0	1.0	32.5
German	0.1	15.7	1.2	0.3	1.3	0.1	18.8
English	0.7	0	5.9	3.5	0	0.7	11.1
French	0	0.6	0	0.1	0	0.1	0.9
Total	45.5	26.3	15.7	8.7	1.3	2.5	100.0

The totals may not agree due to round-off error.

True to its name Culross is strongly Scottish in nature with people of Scots origin comprising close to 37% of the families. If the Irish Presbyterians (of so-called Scots-Irish origin) are add to them, together they made up half the families in Culross. The next largest group were Germans, largerly of the Catholic faith. They mostly originated from southwest Germany and from Alsace and were heavily concentrated in northeast Culross near the village of Formosa.

The largest religious group by far were the Presbyterians. The next largest were the Catholics of German, IRish and Scottish origin. The largest concentration of Irish Catholics was in the southeastern part of the township in an area known as the Irish Settlement. Scottish Catholics lived mostly in the southwest corner in the Scotch Settlement.