The self-proclaimed "Gateway to the Beaver Valley" recently lost its autonomy as a village when it was amalgamated with the surrounding Artemesia Township.

[1] Whether it was carried south to the Flesherton area around the east side of Georgian Bay, or dates back to a time when a land bridge existed between the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island, the arrowhead does point to prehistoric interaction between people of the Flesherton region and those of northern Ontario.

[1] The Turtle First Nation continued to live in the Flesherton area until they were forced to surrender their lands to the British Crown in 1818.

[1] Both Munshaw and Flesher also laid out the portions of their acreages as village lots, hoping to encourage people to move to the area.

In 1864, as the village grew, Munshaw built a larger inn and stagecoach stop that incorporated some parts of the original hotel.

Flesher became a prominent local figure, acting at various times as postmaster, magistrate, druggist, and even doctor, as well as warden of Grey County (1855–1857, 1861–1862, 1865 and 1867), and reeve of the village (1854–1865 and 1866–1878).

He organized a Masonic Lodge, and was a vocal booster of the village, convincing other businesses to settle in the area, including a woolen (fulling) mill owned by his son William Henry in 1863.

About this time, a mini-land boom ensued as speculators bet that the Toronto, Grey & Bruce Railway would pass through Flesherton.

[3] Methodist circuit riders had been visiting the area since 1850, usually using someone's house or the parlour of the Munshaw Hotel for worship.

The red brick church was finished a year later, and dedicated on 18 November 1877 by Egerton Ryerson, provincial Minister of Education.

[3] By the mid-1880s, the nearby railway station in Ceylon was a busy place with three railyards, since goods travelling to western Canada—including troops sent to quell the Riel Rebellion of 1886—were shipped up this line from Toronto to Owen Sound, and from there by boat to Lake Superior.

Although the train station was relatively close, new businesses balked at moving to the village, since their goods to be shipped by rail would first have to be hauled by horses out of the steep valley.

[3] In 1910, the Artemesia Rural High School was built in Flesherton; students either rode from their farms to attend classes or boarded at Park House.

The following year, the coming of the automobile resulted in Flesherton's first gas station, attached to a hardware store.

Eighty-four local men enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, a significant percentage of the small village's population.

[10] Likewise in the 1930s, the Durham Road as far as the centre of Flesherton was assumed by the province as the easternmost extension of King's Highway 4.

The arrival of the new high school's teaching and support staff and their families raised the village's population from 480 to 700, the first significant growth in over 80 years.

In 1969, yet another major fire in the downtown district destroyed several 19th-century buildings on the southwest corner of the main intersection.

In 1974, village councillor Gilbert Little proposed a festival to promote local businesses and draw tourist traffic to the area.

At the same time, an increased interest in local history led to the construction of the South Grey Museum and Historical Library in a corner of Memorial Park in 1974.

Flesherton now has two schools, an arena and community centre, post office, several parks, a hiking area known as The Flesherton Hills (100 acres located behind the High School), a swimming pond, the South Grey Museum, a Canadian Legion Hall, a public library, two churches, and a cemetery and crematorium.