Census of 1891 (Eigg Mountain Settlement History)

 

The purpose here is to reconstruct the spatial path of the census-taker in 1891.  In an ideal world the census taker should have visited every occupied dwelling in a linear sequence.  It is quite possible however that people would not be home on a given day or at a given time of day, and he would catch them on a return trip, mixing the sequence.  Alternately he might find people staying at or visiting a house not their own.  He could also take the information on households from relatives or neighbours without actually visiting the house site.

 

#32 Malcolm Fraser (father of Angus Malcolm)

#33 Alexander MacMillan (down the Powers Brook Valley)

…no Lauchie MacEachern (further down)

#34 Patrick Delaney

…no Frasers along the road

#35 Ranald Fraser (doubling back?)

#36 Ranald Coll MacDonald (north of the Main Road)

#37 Donald Fraser (at the Mooney place?)

…then no John MacIsaac (north of Ranald Coll)

#38 Donald MacDonald (at the Smith place? “D. Macdonald on Church? Down the mountain?)

#39 Martin MacDonald

#40 John MacEachern (on the Boars Back?)

#41 Rory MacIsaac (Main Road?)

#42 Donald MacIsaac (Main Road?)

#43 Alexander Fraser (68 yrs old)

 

#44 Angus MacDonald

The name does not fit the Church map

#45 John MacDonald

This is likely the house site discovered in 2007 initially called MacDonald’s Corner since it is so clearly the “J. MacDonald” on the Church map.  That would mean that the census taker passed this property to find an “Angus MacDonald” where there is now a “D. MacDonald” on the Church map.

#46 Angus MacDonald:

On that date three brothers lived here: Angus (listed as the head of the household), William Coll and Colin Coll.  The Church map, 12 years earlier, lists an “A. MacDonald” roughly at this site.  If this is so that would mean the census taker came up from the west end of the main road to the Lewis road over land that both the Church map and the Geological survey map (1893) indicate had no road (there would at least have been an old drive past the Smith place).  This would indicate that there was no one living at the Smith property in 1891 (however there is a house indicated there on the 1892 Geological Survey map).

#47 Alexander Gillis (66 yrs old)

If the census taker turned back to the Lewis road at this point then this is probably the “A. Gillis” on the Church map near the Arisiag road crossroads and there was no longer anyone at the “G. P. Gillis” site.  If he continued west then this is the G. P. Gillis site.  Alexander could have been GP’s son if GP had died in say 1885 at 85 yrs of age.  This would be supported by the fact that a house is indicated at this site in the 1893 Geological Survey map.

#48 Donald MacLellan

If this is the next stop on the census takers route then the Colin Coll Macdonald site must have been empty as well as all but one of the Gillis sites north of the crossroads with the Lewis road and the Old Trunk Road.  The census taker would have travelled down the Old Trunk Road to the MacLellans’, and then doubled back to the Gillis’.