From "Uncle" Will Dingwell's stately horse-drawn hearse to today's motorized funeral coach, Dingwell's Funeral Home has been part of the Souris life and death scene since 1912.

As the fifth largest community of Prince Edward Island, Souris is a busy port and the hub centre for goods and services in the district. It is also the port for the Magdalen Islands ferry to Cap-aux-Meules - a physical link with the French heritage of Souris.

Now in its fourth generation, Dingwell's is a partnership between Gary Dingwell and brother-in-law Allan (Dawn) Reynolds, and is the oldest family-owned operation in Prince Edward Island.

The community in which they located was incorporated in 1905, but the history of Souris goes back, away back, to a time when East Kings County was an important shipbuilding and trading centre. Souris, like other island points, prospered greatly between the years 1830 to 1880.

Different sailing ships were built in different ports. Brigantines were built in Mount Stewart, barques at Grand River and Port Hill and schooners at Souris, Bay Fortune and New Glasgow.

Gary said his uncle Will recalled a time when Colville Bay was so full of fishing craft and sailing that one could walk across their decks to the state of Mains without touching water.

It was a fishing, shipbuilding and farming community, but the town has never forgotten the reason for its name. Souris, in French, means "mice."

Although bothered by mosquitoes and grasshoppers, the mice were a constant problem. The mice made their homes in the forest in the winter, with the female bearing a litter of ten to twelve mice every six weeks. When spring came, the mice left the forest and ate everything in their path. Some say rivers were choked with dead mice, slowing down ships as they passed.

There were four mice plagues between 1724 and 1749. Each time this happened the French settlers had to rely on the fort at Louisburg, Nova Scotia for provisions. Eventually, Souris was named in memory of the mice invasions.

It was to Souris that William Dingwell (affectionately known as Uncle Will) came in 1912 and opened a small funeral parlour. He would be the first funeral director and would build caskets as well.

Born on a farm at Fortune, some twenty miles from Souris, he and brother Reginald were members of the first graduating class of Boston's New England Institute of Anatomy (Sanitary Science-Embalming), December 31, 1910.

Will was a proud, immaculate man who went to Boston as a shipyard carpenter at the turn of the century. His collars were always white and clean, and his necktie in place except when at work on his carpentry.

Until the opening of Dingwell Funeral Home, caskets were purchased at Matthew and MacLean's General Store on Main Street or were made by carpenters or cabinetmakers in the country as the people quietly buried family and friends.

Uncle Will was joined by another brother, Ernest, who apprenticed under Allie B. Cutcliffe of Charlottetown and then returned to Souris, assuming the reins of the business in 1946. Uncle Will died in 1933, leaving Ernest and two sons, Sterling and Leith to carry on. The boys began working at the funeral home in 1935.

The boys married, and Sterling's wife, Tena (nee MacKinnon) and Leith's wife, Winnifred joined the work force. An afternoon in the casket shop would find the men polishing and rubbing the glistening wood pieces while the two women sewed the soft satin linings.

They turned out exquisite, handmade caskets for East Kings residents that would now be economically impossible to produce with today's labour and material costs.

They stopped making their own caskets in 1976 and today the Dingwell casket selection area holds eighteen different models made by manufacturers "from away."

In the early days, funeral service consisted primarily of transportation. Wakes were usually held in the home of the deceased. Stirling always embalmed the deceased, most often in the home.

The original Dingwell Funeral Home consisted of a preparation room, office and workshop where caskets were built. Upstairs, there were two large showrooms. On this floor, the linings were made and the exterior fabrics were put on the caskets. The third floor was used for storage.

In 1990, the old building was torn down and the space turned into a parking lot. A modern garage houses the funeral vehicles and adjoins the new facilities which include preparation and show rooms and office. Everything is on one level.

Stirling's brother Leith died in September, 1987. As for Stirling, a first-class carpenter and registered embalmer (1958), he died August 28, 1997 at the age of seventy-eight years. Few would recall he was stricken with polio at the age of four years and overcame many adversities to make a successful career in the funeral service.

Son Gary remembers when dairy cows ambled at the rear of the funeral home and huge potato crops flourished. The Dingwell's would sell milk to Souris residents to help ends meet in earlier times. Located on the eastern tip of the island, Dingwell's serves a twenty-mile radius in East Kings and Gary said most people are on a fixed income, following fishing, farming or work with the department of highways. There are thirteen cemeteries within the Souris trading area.

Gary Dingwell apprenticed with his dad, receiving his provincial license in 1980. The firm operated an ambulance service from 1943 until selling in 1996. "it wasn't a profitable venture and be just got tired of being on call one hundred and twenty hours a week," he said.

At forty-nine years of age, Dingwell pursues additional interests to his business. He has a black belt in karate and regularly enjoys an outing on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle. He is also an artist, by shy in telling of this particular gift.

Dingwell's daughter, Erin is a student at Charlottetown University, studying for a degree in science. Gary's sister Dawn is a registered nurse and she and husband Allan Reynolds have two daughters Rachel and Heather and a son, Derek.

In 1980, Dingwell Funeral Home was in charge of the state funeral for the Hon. Daniel (Dan) MacDonald, Minister of Veterans Affairs for Canada. The funeral was held in Charlottetown and was attended by numerous dignitaries, including the prime minister. This was followed by a private family funeral in the community of St. Columbia, located east of Souris.

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