(1885-19 May 1962), clergyman. (E.E. Preston, Edwin E. Preston) Born in London, Eng. (The date 1895, evidently incorrect, has also been given for his birth) At some stage, he may have been a Barnardo boy. In 1907 he came to Canada . He studied at the Toronto Bible College (Toronto Bible Training School), and afterwards, from 1910 to 1913, at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky, from which he received his B. D. degree in May 1913. He was ordained in 1913. In his early years, c. 1914-c. 1916, he served as a missionary preacher in Wyoming. Then or later, he was perhaps also a missionary preacher in the Canadian West. In the First World War, he served first in the Canadian forces and then in the Imperial Army. He was seriously wounded in the fighting, and it was reported, erroneously, that he had been killed. He was a minister at Casper, Wyoming, c. 1923-c. 1924, then he was a minister at Almonte, Ont., 1925-1927. From Jan. 1927 to June 1949 he was minister of Knox Presbyterian Church, Vankleek Hill. During this time, he served also on occasion as interim moderator at Kenyon Presbyterian Church, Dunvegan, and St. Columba Presbyterian Church, Kirk Hill. Retired in 1949 from the active pastorate of the Presbyterian Church, he continued to be a Vankleek Hill resident. He died in Montreal and is buried at Greenwood Cemetery, Vankleek Hill. A dedicated hobby photographer, he took valuable pictures in Wyoming and Colorado of Indians and of scenes from frontier life. Many of these pictures were lost or damaged in a fire in 1989. He was author of a notable article in local history, “The Old Ridge Trail” (published Vankleek Hill Review 11 July 1940). He was married to (1) Susanna Mary Allen (1884-1954), and (2) Margaret Agnes Lowry (1898-1978).

Glengarry News 24 May 1962 * information from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary * A Goodly Heritage: a History of Knox Presbyterian Church, Vankleek Hill (2001), esp. 19-21, 33 * MacMillan, Kirk, 247, 255 (portraittrait) * gravestone * Myron Ulczak, “Edwin Edward [sic] Preston: a Local Heritage: In Times of Cowboys and Indians,” Vankleek Hill Review 15 Jan. 1997, with examples of his frontier photographs and a striking photograph (“perhaps a self-portrait”) of Preston c. 1924 * MacMillan, Kenyon Presbyterian Church, 29 * to be inducted, GN 7 Jan. 1927 * in fine group portrait with Dame Flora MacLeod and many others, outside St. Columba Presbyterian Church, Kirk Hill, 1955, GN 14 June 2006