Benjamin Preston

Mr. Preston's Life          By Nathan Foore Mr. Preston was a very important person in the Timnath community because he helped build the Timnath Presbyterian Church. But he wasn't born anywhere near Timnath. He was born in Kirby Kane, Suffolk, England on May 9, 1848. He was a farmer boy and he was extremely poor. Then at the age of 16 he immigrated to America. After that he started a new life in Colorado. Mr. Preston got 228 acres of raw land and he was a successful farmer and made lots of money. Then he got married to a woman named Hessie S. Bell in 1874. Then they had three children. Now his land is where Preston Junior High is and you can visit his house and see the wonderful work of Benjamin Preston.

The Preston Farm           By Jake Johnson

Mr. Benjamin Preston's farm was established during 1887. The farm house and the granary are located southwest of Harmony Road and by County Road 9. The Preston farm is one of the best examples of all the preserved farms in the Fort Collins area.

The Preston family has operated the farm for over a hundred years. During 1906, the Preston family built a farmhouse we still can see today. Then over the years the Prestons added some other buildings. The Family passed the farm down, from family member to family member. Then in the year 1986, the Preston family sold their farm to the city. The city has been preserving the farm and is going to make it a park.

Bibliography

Miller, Del, and Elsie Fisher. Timnath, Fort Collins, CO: The Columbine Club, 1996.

Ahlbrendt, Arelne, and Kathryn Stieben. Larimer County History, Fort Collins, CO: Curtis Media Corporation, 1985.

To find more, go to Historic Fort Collins Development Corporation or go to Preston Junior High.

About The Authors

Nathan Foore
Hi! I am Nathan Foore. I created this page on Benjamin Preston when I was in the sixth grade as part of a final choice class. I wanted to do my project on Mr. Preston because he sounded like a very interesting person and he seemed like he was an important man. So when I started I began to take notes on everything that I could find about him. But I did have a few problems. One problem that occurred was there wasn't enough information for me about Mr. Preston. So I had to adjust my article. But I liked this project a lot because we could do almost anything about Timnath. I hope more people will find a lot more about Mr. Preston in the future.

Jake Johnson
My Name is Jake Johnson. I created the Preston Farm page when I was in the sixth grade as part of a final class choice. I chose to write about the Preston Farm because I thought it was a interesting topic. I found the information about Mr. Preston in the Timnath History book, and some articles in the Fort Collins Coloradan. I didn't really have a favorite part of the project. Future researchers should try to find out what all the outbuildings on the Preston Farm were used for.