Durham, N. N.  "Spokane and the Inland Empire: History of the City of Spokane
and Spokane County Washington."  Vol. 2.  S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1912.

RALPH CARLTON DILLINGHAM
 
	Without any special advantages at the outset of his business career Ralph
Carlton Dillingham has steadily advanced and the steps in his orderly
progression are easily discernible. No unusually fortunate conditions awaited
him but with determined purpose and laudable ambition he has met competition in
honorable manner, has proven his worth and today receives the reward of
indefatigable and honorable effort in his position as a partner in the leading
wholesale and retail paint business in the inland empire. He was born at
Thomaston, Maine, June 12, 1867, so that the width of the continent separates
him from his birthplace. He is one of the three sons of Edward L. and Elizabeth
(Carlton) Dillingham, who were also natives of the Pine Tree state. The father
is still living in Thomaston, where he is engaged in general merchandising. He
represents an old New England family of English lineage. In his home town he has
been active in political work and is now serving as selectman of his village.
His wife, who was also of English descent, although the Carlton family was
founded in New England at an early day, died in Maine in 1869. The only brother
of our subject is George Dillingham, who is now associated with
him in business in Spokane.

	At the usual age Ralph C. Dillingham entered the public schools of
Thomaston, mastered the work in successive grades and eventually became a
high-school pupil. His early business training was received in his father's
store, in which he clerked for two years and then went to Chicago. He was in the
employ of Wadsworth, Howland & Company. paint manufacturers, for three years and
in November, 1889, came to Spokane, where he entered business circles as a
wholesale and retail dealer in paints, forming a partnership with Charles H.
Jones, which relation has since been maintained under the firm style of Jones &
Dillingham. For twenty-two years this firm has existed and they are today the
leading and largest paint house in Washington on the east side of the mountains.
They established a retail enterprise but soon began the manufacture of paint,
selling to the wholesale trade, and they also manufacture art glass and mirrors
and are jobbers of plate glass. Aside from his commercial interests Mr.
Dillingham has many important business connections in Spokane and has been a
large investor in real estate, his property holdings now returning to him a
gratifying income.

	On the 8th of June, 1892, Mr. Dillingham was married in Spokane to Miss
Edith Paine, a daughter of George W. Paine, a real-estate dealer of Spokane, who
represents an old Maine family but lived for a time in Illinois before coming to
Washington. Mr. and Mrs. Dillingham have two daughters, Evelyn and Elizabeth,
both of whom are students in Brunot Hall. The family have a beautiful home
justly celebrated for its extensive and warm-hearted hospitality, and the
parents are very prominent socially. Mr. Dillingham enters with zest into the
interests and work of the Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained the
thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, also holding membership in the Mystic
Shrine. He belongs also to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Spokane
Lodge, No. 228, B. P. O. E. He is interested in politics as a supporter of
democratic principles, has been a delegate to city conventions and was nominated
for the office of city councilman, but a democrat has never been elected in his
ward. He holds membership in the Chamber of Commerce and is interested in its
various projects for Spokane's welfare and upbuilding. He is now the president
of the Spokane Club, a member of the Spokane Country Club, the Spokane Athletic
Club and the Spokane Tennis Club, all of which indicate something of the nature
of his interests and recreation. He is at all times alert to the interests of
his business and to the welfare of the city and labors as earnestly for the one
as for the other.

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Submitted to the Washington Biographies Project in July 2017 by Diane Wright.
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.