Nearly eighty years ago, Mr. Nelson Dingley of Durham, Maine, moved
into this town, and at once took a prominent place in town affairs. He
purchased the place now known as the Methodist parsonage, and built the
store now owned by C. Boyce Mitchell, where he engaged in trade.
He had at that time one son, Nelson Dingley, Jr., who afterward made
a name for himself in the political life of his state and country. He
graduated from Dartmouth College in 1855, edited the Lewiston Journal
for twenty years, served in the legislature (1862-73), was elected
governor in 1874, and elected to Congress in 1881. He was chairman of
the Ways and Means Committee. His name survives in the Dingley Tariff
Bill, passed in 1897.
Frank Lambert Dingley, brother of Nelson, Jr., was born in Unity,
Maine. He is a graduate of Bowdoin College, and is the present editor
of the Lewiston Journal.