Samuel Merner
Inducted In
1972
Samuel Merner, born and educated in Berne, Switzerland, eventually became a Canadian senator.
He came to Wilmot Township with his parents and nine brothers and sisters in 1837. At Preston he learned the blacksmith trade and four years later at New Hamburg opened a blacksmith business which in time branched into a wagon and carriage trade. He sold his business to his brother Frederick and opened foundries in New Hamburg and Waterloo. In 1873 his sons purchased the foundries.
In 1862 Merner purchased the New Hamburg German newspaper, the Volks blatt, which he sold to Otto Pressprich in 1865.
He was reeve of New Hamburg from 1872 to 1878 and was the first New Hamburg reeve to be chosen warden of Waterloo County. In 1878 he was elected to the Dominion Parliament as an Independent. A supporter of Sir John A. MacDonald, he was appointed to the Senate in 1887.