The Dingwall Brothers

The Dingwall brother’s were early pioneers of the New Chicago area. Brothers, Duncan, born March 31, 1847 and William, born October 14, 1844, in Ontario, Canada, immigrated as a young men. 

William first to Buffalo, New York where he worked as a clerk in a lumber company for six years, then decided to come west. He returned to Canada for a short visit with his family and then with brother Duncan traveled to Sioux City by rail. They then traveled overland on horse back to the Missouri River and booked themselves on a boat up the Missouri to Fort Benton. William and Duncan joined a group of 18 and engaged a freighting party to bring them to Helena,. They arrived at the bustling mining camp in 1868. After working for six months in Helena, Duncan went to Henderson Gulch where he was involved in placer mining for about three years. William remained in Helena and worked in the lumber business. 

Next, William and Duncan bought a herd of cattle and drove them into the Flint Creek valley in 1871. There they set up the Dingwall ranch which acquired more than 4,000 acres in the New Chicago area. Both brothers were members of the Montana Society of Pioneers. During the winter of 1873 the Dingwall herd of cattle scattered during a severe storm and Duncan froze his feet while rounding them up according to an article in the Missoulian on July 3, 1955. The result of the incident “was amputation”, but I never found any other reference to this fact. 

Duncan Dingwall was involved in the very heated election campaign of 1886 against the Sligh-Durand ticket for Montana State Senator. After Duncan won the election Sligh by manipulation went to Helena and occupied the Senate seat. The December 4, 1896 Mail carried the District Court happenings where:

”On Saturday the case of Sligh vs Reck came up at the district court. Dr. J.M. Sligh instituted injunction proceedings against G. J. Reck as county clerk of Granite county to restrain him from issuing a certificate of election to Duncan Dingwall as senator from Granite county. The case was ably argued by Honorable W. B. Rodgers, counsel for Dingwall and W. E. Moore of Philipsburg, counsel for Sligh. The court took the case under advisement and on Monday rendered its decision, in which the injunction was denied. Judge Brantly, in rendering his decision held substantially: …that Duncan Dingwall, having received a majority of all the votes cast at the last election, for that office, was regularly and duly elected as such senator and is entitled to receive a certificate of election from the Clerk of Granite county.” 

Dingwall won out and research revealed many notes in the Philipsburg Mail addressing him as Honorable Duncan Dingwall during 1897. Also found was the following: 

“Dingwall Brothers sold fifty head of cattle Monday last to a Helena firm for the smug sum of $2,125.00, or $42.50 a head.(March 5, 1897) The Philipsburg Mail posted a list of the county taxpayers who paid over $100 for the year 1896, on December 31. The Dingwall Brothers paid $665.24. As a comparison The First National Bank paid $827.63. The October 15, 1910 Mail published taxes owed by Duncan Dingwall as $287.00 and the Dingwall Brothers owed $290.33. Then in January 20, 1928 the William Dingwall Company was assessed $1,575.30 

Duncan was the first president of the Drummond Commercial Club when it was organized in 1912. Duncan married Lodema Tinklepaugh and they had son Earl D. He became an assistant to his father in the merchandising business a year before Duncan died from the effects of Bright’s Disease on November 9, 1919, at the age of 72. Survivors beside wife, son and brother of New Chicago, were brother Ewen of Lancaster, Ontario and an un-named sister at the same local. Internment was in the Valley cemetery. 

William took an active interest in republican politics and was elected Granite County Commissioner in 1908. He was chairman of the Board when the Granite County Court House was built in 1912 and was one of the organizers and stockholders in the First State Bank in Philipsburg and the Deer Lodge Bank and Trust Company in Deer Lodge. He died on the ranch where he had lived for the past 58 years on July 16, 1929, at the age of 84, after a short illness. His funeral was held at the family residence. Internment was in the Valley cemetery. Survivors were wife Catherine (Kate Price) and children: Leona, John, William and James. 

 None of the children married, but they took Jack Nelson under their wing. Jack inherited the asset after helping them run the Dingwall ranch, until their deaths.