The population of Sherbrooke had reached 1,169 when the census was taken in 1861. The village had 3 water powered sawmills, valued at $2,400, and employing 12 men, which manufactured 700,000 superficial feet of deal; 201,000 superficial feet of pine boards; 600,000 superficial feet of spruce and hemlock boards; 467,000 tons of square timber and 43,000 staves. $1,320 worth of leather had been tanned; 26 carriages and 38 boats were built in 1860, while 2,507 barrels of herring, 101 barrels of alewives and 706 barrels of salmon had been caught.(106)
The number of inhabitants increased slightly in the 1860's because the population had reached 1,233 when the first census of the Dominion of Canada was taken in 1871. The Scots predominated with 1,058, followed by 253 English, 206 Irish, 36 German, 6 Africans, 7 Italian and 6 Spanish.(107) The Presbyterians were by far in the majority with 893 adherents; Church of England had 279, Catholics had 202, Baptists had 199, Methodists had 36 and the Wesleyans had 6.(108)
Among the business and professional men listed at Sherbrooke in Hutchinson's Nova Scotia Directory for 1864-65(109) were James Archibald, house joiner; William Baily, merchant; Dougald Campbell, shoemaker; William Cruickshank, tailor; Alexander Cunningham, shoemaker; John Cumminger, general dealer; Alexander Dechman, tanner and currier; William Fillmore, shoemaker; Alexander Fisher, baker and grocer; William E. Irish, saddle and harness maker; Daniel Logan, harness maker; Henry McDaniel, shipwright; John McDaniel, hotel and packet line to Halifax; A. N. McDonald, surveyor of shipping,; Alexander and David McDonald, general store; Donald McDonald, tailor; Hugh McDonald, postmaster,(110) James H. McDonald, groceries and drugs; John A. McDonald, blacksmith; Mrs. Sarah McDonald, boarding house; McDonald & Kennedy, sawmills and lumber dealers; Alexander McDougall, watchmaker; Roderick McDougall, shoemaker; Alexander McGillvray, physician; Charles S. McIntosh, shipwright; Abner P. McKenzie, comptroller of customs; Donald H. McKenzie, harness maker; John McMillian, physician; Allen McQuerrie, hotel and stage proprietor; John McQuarry, carpenter; John McQuarry, general store; Robert W. MacDonald, general dealer; George Manson, carriage maker; Donald Mirdoch, house joiner; Donald Murdoch, general store; William Murdoch, trader; Mrs. P. Nickerson, boarding house; George Olding, house joiner; Phillip S. Perrier, general dealer; John Perrier, druggist; Perrier & MacDonald, variety house; John Power, house joiner; William L. Pye, surveyor and deputy gold commissioner; David E. Rop, photographer; Andrew Stevenson, miner; John A Stewart, carriage maker; John Walsh, tailor; and Alfred K. White, tinsmith; Charles Burns, catechist and Rev. John Campbell.
Thus, the picture emerges of an administrative and trading centre for lumber and shipping operations. The area also provided nearby gold mines with various general dealers and merchants to handle such things as lumber and supplies, sawmills, a tannery, harness makers for horses used for transportation and in lumber, blacksmiths for shoeing horses and also an iron work for ships, carriage makers, carpenters and shipwrights, a doctor, two ministers, a druggist, hotels and boarding houses, officials such as a postmaster and comptroller of customs and surveyor of shipping and gold commissioner, and a few luxury items such as tailors, watchmaker, and a photographer.