Hon. Nelson Dingley Jr

Nelson was a Representative from Maine. He attended the common schools at Unity, Maine, Waterville Seminary, and Waterville College. He graduated from Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH in 1855. He graduated from Bates College in law, was admitted to the bar but left the profession and became a proprietor and editor of the Lewiston (Maine) Journal in 1856. He was a member of the State house of representatives from 1862-65, 1868 and 1873 and served as speaker in 1863 and 1864. He became Governor of Maine in 1874; delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1876 and 1880. He was elected as a Republican to the 47th Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of William P Frye. He was reelected to the 48th and to the seven succeeding Congresses and served from September 12, 1881 until his death in Washington, DC before the close of the 55th Congress. He was chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means in the 45th and 55th Congresses. He had also been reelected to the 57th Congress.

NELSON DINGLEY, JR., the thirty-fourth governor of Maine, was born in Durham, Maine on February 15, 1832. His education was attained at Waterville Seminary, at Waterville College, and at Dartmouth College, where he graduated in 1855. He studied law, and in 1856 was admitted to the bar. However, he never practiced law, choosing instead to go into the publishing field. He bought the Lewiston Evening Journal, and served as the editor for more than twenty years. Dingley entered politics in 1862, serving as a member of the Maine House of Representatives, a position he was reelected to in 1863, 1864, 1868 and 1873. He also served as speaker of the house in 1863 and 1864. Dingley won the Republican gubernatorial nomination, and was elected governor by a popular vote in 1873. He was reelected to a second term in 1874. During his tenure, free public education was supported, prohibition measures were endorsed, and railroad and corporation taxation reform was recommended. After declining to run for a third term, Dingley left office on January 5, 1876, and returned to his publishing interests. He returned to politics in 1881, winning election to the U.S. House of Representatives, an office he held until 1899. He also served on an international commission in 1898 that negotiated the Alaskan boundary and seal fisheries disagreement with Canada. Governor Nelson Dingley Jr. passed away on January 13, 1899, and was buried at the Oak Hill Cemetery near Auburn, Maine.

Sources: Sobel, Robert, and John Raimo, eds. Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789-1978, Vol. 2, Westport, Conn.; Meckler Books, 1978. 4 vols.

Nelson Dingley, Jr. (February 15, 1832 – January 13, 1899) was a journalist and politician from the U.S. state of Maine.

Dingley was born in Durham, Maine and attended the common schools at Unity, Maine, Waterville Seminary, and Waterville College. He graduated from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, in 1855, where he was a founding member of the Psi Chapter of the Zeta Psi Fraternity. He then studied law, received an LL.D. from Bates College, and was admitted to the bar in 1856. However, he never practiced law and instead became proprietor and editor of the Lewiston, Maine Journal, holding this post for more than twenty years. He was a member of the Maine House of Representatives 1862–1865, 1868, and again in 1873, serving as speaker in 1863 and 1864. He was the 34th Governor of Maine in 1874 and a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1876 and 1880.

Dingley was elected as a Republican to the 47th Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of William P. Frye. He was then reelected to the Forty-eighth and to the seven succeeding Congresses, serving from September 12, 1881, until his death in Washington, D.C., before the close of the Fifty-fifth Congress. Reputedly "destitute of humor but soundly versed in finance", Dingley was chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means in the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses. The tariff schedule of 1897, known as the Dingley Tariff, was framed under his direction to counter the lower rates set forth in the 1894 Democratic Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act. The Dingley Tariff raised tariff rates and granted the President authority to invoke reciprocity when negotiating trade treaties.

Dingley had been reelected to the Fifty-sixth Congress and was succeeded by William P. Frye. He is interred in Oak Hill Cemetery, near Auburn, Maine.