History
[edit]
Cessions of First Nations lands[edit]
The territory of the County arose from various surrenders of First Nations lands.
The bulk of the land arose from the Queen's Bush, as a result of the 1836 Saugeen Tract Agreement. That was followed by the cession of the Indian Strip in 1851 for a road between Owen Sound and Southampton that was never constructed. Friction between the Chippewas arising out of that led to significant delay in later negotiations.
The Saugeen Surrenders of 1854, known as "Treaty 72," transferred the remainder of the Bruce Peninsula to the Crown and reserved the following lands:: 195–197 
Reserved for
Tract
Later disposition
Saugeen Indians
Saugeen
now known as Saugeen 29
Chief's Point
now known as Chief's Point 28
Owen Sound Indians
Newash
Surrendered to the Crown in 1857 under the Peter Jones Treaty (also known as "Treaty 82"),: 213–215  becoming Sarawak Township in Grey County. Resulting land sales were for the benefit of the Indians, who would be moved to Cape Croker.
Cape Croker
now known as Neyaashiinigmiing 27
Colpoy's Bay Indians
Colpoy's Bay
Surrendered to the Crown in 1861 under "Treaty 93", becoming part of Keppel Township in Grey County.: 233–234  Resulting land sales were for the benefit of the Indians, who would be moved to Christian Island.
Municipal history[edit]
Canada West in 1857. Bruce County is marked in light green.
Huron County was organized in the Huron District in 1845, and the District itself, which had been continued for judicial purposes, was abolished in early 1850. Legislation passed later in the same session of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada provided instead for it to be reconstituted as the United Counties of Huron, Perth and Bruce, with the territory of the Bruce Peninsula (referred to as the "Indian Reserve") to ne withdrawn and annexed to Waterloo County. Bruce County consisted of the following townships:
Huron
Kinloss
Curloss
Carrick
Kincardine
Greenock
Brant
Bruce
Saugeen
Elderslie
Arran
The Indian Reserve (being the part not otherwise transferred to Grey County) was later withdrawn from Waterloo and transferred to Bruce in 1851. The County of Perth was given its own Provisional Municipal Council at that time, and was separated from the United Counties in 1853.
In 1849, the Huron District Council initially united the area of the county with the United Townships of Wawanosh and Ashfield as a single municipality, which lasted until 1851, when Wawanosh and Ashfield were withdrawn. The area then became known as the "United Townships in the County of Bruce," which lasted until its division into municipalities in 1854.: 104 
The Bruce Peninsula was later surveyed into townships, starting with Amabel and Albemarle in 1855,: 209, 234  Eastnor in 1862,: 245  followed by Lindsay in 1870: 251  and St. Edmunds in 1871.: 256 
The following villages and towns would be constituted over the years:
Bruce County urban municipalities (with date of incorporation)
Villages
Towns
Lucknow (police village 1863, village 1874)
Port Elgin (1873): 501 
Paisley (1874): 392 
Teeswater (1875): 355 
Tiverton (1879): 330 
Tara (1881): 276 
Kincardine (village 1858, town 1875)
Southampton (village 1858, town 1904): 511–512 
Walkerton (1871): 290 
Chesley (village 1880, town 1906): 377, 382 
Wiarton (village 1880, town 1894): 223, 228 
Formation of separate county council (1857–1867)[edit]
Townships of Bruce County, Ontario, 1880
A Provisional Municipal Council was established for Bruce County at the beginning of 1857, Walkerton was initially proclaimed as the county seat, in preference to Kincardine,: 92  but local opposition forced the proclamation to be deferred until each town and village had presented a case for its selection. A subsequent proclamation confirmed Walkerton's selection.: 92 
In 1863, the provisional council promoted a bill in the Legislative Assembly to divide the county into the counties of Bruce and Wallace, with Kincardine and Southampton once more proposed as the respective county towns,: 95  but it went only as far as thé second reading and did not proceed further.: 95 
The provisional council later asked for legislation to provide for a referendum as to whether Walkerton, Paisley, Kincardine, or another place would be the most acceptable choice. The referendum was held in September 1864, and Paisley received a plurality of the votes.: 99  In early 1865, the provisional council asked for legislation to confirm the result but changed its mind later in the year in favour of Walkerton.: 101  Confirming legislation was passed in 1866 to provide for the dissolution of the United Counties on January 1, 1867, with Huron and Bruce becoming separate counties for all purposes.
