Samuel J. Cherry

From the age of fifteen, when he became an apprentice in a gristmill at Dundas, until his death some sixty years later, Samuel Cherry was associated with flour mills. The Cherry Mill at Preston is the oldest continuing business in Waterloo County. The 1807 original “John Erb” mill was replaced by a frame mill in 1835, and the brick structure was erected in 1894.

At the age of nineteen, Cherry moved to Preston to work with the Abram Erb and Brothers Cambridge Mill, which he later owned. He subsequently had charge of mills at Dundas, Guelph, Glenmorris, Walkerton and Glendinning. In 1879 he and his brother John acquired the Preston mill and ten years later he became sole owner.

Cherry served the municipality as a member of the town council, chairman of the park board, as a member of the county council and as warden in 1906.