In 1837 the village of Sydenham was surveyed by Charles Rankin. In 1856 it was incorporated as the Town of Owen Sound with an estimated population of 2,000.
In 1840, the area became part of the new District of Wellington, and its territory formed the County of Waterloo for electoral purposes.[4][5] In 1849, Wellington District was abolished, and Waterloo County remained for municipal and judicial purposes.[6] The territory of the Bruce Peninsula became part of Waterloo in 1849,[7] but was later withdrawn and transferred to Bruce County in 1851.[8]
In January 1852, Waterloo County became the United Counties of Wellington, Waterloo and Grey.[9] Grey County was named in honour of the British Colonial Secretary's father, Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1830-1834.[10] Its territory was declared to consist of the following townships, together with part of the Indian Reserves on the Bruce Peninsula:[11]
Artemesia
Bentinck
Collingwood
Derby
Egremont
Euphrasia
Glenelg
Holland
Melancthon
Normanby
Osprey
Proton
Saint Vincent
Sullivan
Sydenham
Canada West in 1857. Grey County is marked in dark pink.
The Indian lands were later surveyed and became the townships of Keppel[12] and Sarawak.[13] A Provisional Municipal Council was organized for the County in April 1852, with the Town of Sydenham named as the county town.[14]
Waterloo was withdrawn from the United Counties in January 1853, and the remainder was renamed the United Counties of Wellington and Grey.[15] In January 1854, the United Counties was dissolved, and Wellington and Grey were separate counties for all purposes.[16]
In 1861-1862 the first gravel roads were constructed into Owen Sound at a cost of $300,000. The four colonization roads were:
As a census division in the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Grey County had a population of 100,905 living in 42,309 of its 50,183 total private dwellings, a change of 7.5% from its 2016 population of 93,830. With a land area of 4,497.93 km2 (1,736.66 sq mi), it had a population density of 22.4/km2 (58.1/sq mi) in 2021.[1]
^"1971 Census of Canada - Population Census Subdivisions (Historical)". Catalogue 92-702 Vol I, part 1 (Bulletin 1.1-2). Statistics Canada: 76, 139. July 1973.
