★ Since 1881
Why Preston's?
My family has been doing business with farmers in this valley for more than 140 years.
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1881
A store on Sullivan Street
Michael Preston opened a store on Sullivan Street in Canton, PA. Back then, farmers didn't have much cash. They brought eggs, butter, potatoes and apples into town and traded them for the shoes, cloth and sugar they couldn't raise themselves. The Preston store was built on that trade with farmers.
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1929
Growing into Mansfield
Preston's opened a department store in Mansfield, PA, run by J.J. Preston. The family kept stores in both towns as Preston's Inc.
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1960s
Still family-run
Decades later Preston's was still under family management — a department store and a feed mill serving the farms around Canton and Mansfield.
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Feed mill
My grandfather, Phil Preston
My grandfather Phil Preston ran our family's feed mill in Canton for twenty years. If you farmed around Canton, there's a good chance your family bought feed from mine.
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Today
Preston's Farm Electric
I'm Eric Riggs. I carry the Preston name because it means something to farmers here: show up when you say you will, tell it straight, and charge a fair price. Different trade, same people. I work on farms only — inspections, repairs and new construction.
My background
- Pennsylvania College of Technology — trained in electrical occupations.
- 15 years as an industrial foreman — paper mills, chemical plants, conveyor systems, natural gas distribution and agriculture. Places that are wet, dusty and hard on wiring, just like a barn.
- Farm work along the way — a hog farm, lighting to extend daylight for dairy cows through the winter, silo conveyor motor control panels and other silo controls.
- Ran my own service company, Riggs Electric — residential and light commercial service.
- Estimator to preconstruction manager — bid commercial projects from small jobs up to $200 million and helped manage them in the field.
Now I bring all of that to farms. When I quote your new barn or parlor, it's priced by someone who's been pricing and building electrical work for a long time.
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Next
A family business
Preston's Farm Electric is family-owned and operated.
History from Eleanor P. Keagle's Canton histories, compiled at Tri-Counties Genealogy & History, and the History Center on Main Street, Mansfield, PA.