The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 85

HERBERT P. PRESTON.

Herbert P. Preston, actively engaged in the milling business at Toppenish, was
born in Waitsburg, Washington, December 21, 1874. His father, William G.
Preston, came to this state in 1861, when it was still a part of the territory
of Oregon. He made his way to Walla Walla and was there engaged in the
freighting business until 1865. He afterward established the first flour mill in
the west in Waitsburg, Washington, in 1866, bringing the machinery around Cape
Horn. The new venture proved a successful one and he continued the operation of
the mill until his death, which occurred February 20, 1916. He was also
interested in mercantile business; was director of the Merchants Bank of
Waitsburg and the Schwabacher Company of Walla Walla; was identified with the
Puget Sound Dressed Meat Company and was much interested in farming and stock
raising. In 1869 he wedded Matilda Cox, who survives him and now makes her home
in Walla Walla.

Herbert P. Preston, spending his youthful days under the parental roof, acquired
a public school education and assisted his father in the mill until he reached
the age of seventeen years, when he entered into connection with the grocery
trade as an employee of the Schwabacher Company at Walla Walla. He continued
there for many years and afterward went to Baker City, Oregon, where he
conducted a grocery store for four years. He then went upon the road as
traveling salesman for the Cudahy Packing Company, which he represented in
Oregon, Washington and Idaho for five years. On the expiration of that period he
turned his attention to the brokerage business in Seattle, where he remained
for six years, and in 1917 he built a flour mill at Toppenish, which he is now
successfully conducting. This mill has a capacity for one hundred tons of
alfalfa chopped for stock feed, that amount being turned out every twenty-four
hours. He also makes other kinds of stock feed and manufactures rolled oats and
barley, together with barley, oat and corn flour. The business is one of the
substantial productive industries of the section and employs twenty-five men.

On the 21st of December, 1912, Mr. Preston was married to Miss Corinne C. Hays,
of Baker City, Oregon. He is well known as a member of the Elks lodge in Walla
Walla and he belongs to the Commercial Club of Toppenish and to the Chamber of
Commerce at Seattle. His business activity in various places has made him widely
known and his enterprise has placed him among the leading and representative
citizens of Washington. His political allegiance is given to the republican
party- and he is conversant with all the vital questions and issues of the day,
but he does not seek nor desire office, preferring to concentrate his efforts
and attention upon his business affairs. From time to time he has extended his
activities, which have brought him into connection with many important
interests. He is now a director of the American Savings Bank & Trust Company of
Seattle and he has large farming interests at Walla Walla. He is also interested
in a number of flour mills, including such plants at Waitsburg, Washington, and
Athena, Oregon, and he is a stockholder in a number of banks. He has displayed
sound judgment in his investments and in all business transactions has quickly
discriminated between the essential and the non-essential. Fortunate in
possessing character and ability that inspire confidence in others, the simple
weight of his character and ability has carried him into important relations
with large commercial and financial enterprises.

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Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in December 2007 by Jeffrey L. Elmer.
Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.