Robert Ferrie

Robert Ferrie’s great interest in politics and Ontario led to his election as a Reform candidate for South Waterloo in 1854. He represented the riding for four years.

Ferrie was a son of Sir Adam Ferrie, Sr., a financier of Montreal. Following service in a bank where he obtained a good basic training in finance, he succeeded his brother, Adam Ferrie, Jr., as manager of the manufacturing firm of Adam Ferrie Company at Doon.

Ferrie was keenly interested in all the activities of the community. He donated lands for a community cemetery and for the erection of a new Presbyterian church. He raised purebred cattle and was the first secretary of the Waterloo County Agricultural Society in 1853 and president in 1854.

He was required to do much traveling, and the poor transportation facilities in pioneer days undermined Ferrie’s health. He was only thirty-seven when he died.