Andy Ditto, Western Pioneer, Dies at 92.
The News Record, Gillette, Wyoming
Thursday, March 18, is of interest to people in this community.
"Another of the true pioneers of the west, Andy Ditto, 92, has crossed over the Great Divide. He has been an invalid for the past month before his death last Friday, but had been in fairly good health for his advanced years until that time.
Funeral services were held on Tuesday at 2 o'clock from the Gillette funeral home with the Rev. Sidney L. Morgan officiating. Mrs. Roy Underwood sang "Lead Kindly Light" and "Beautiful Isle of Somewhere" with Mrs. Lewis Grams as the accompanist.
Neighbors acting as pallbearers were Bert and Edwin Moran, Lee Ridenour, Oscar Tholson, Floyd Cook, Andrew Marshall Ditto was born in Keithsburg, Illinois, on September 8, 1855. He was a frail boy in his youth and came west for his health. It was thuoght by his family that he would be shortlived, and they guarded his health, but he outlived all his family but a sister, Mrs. Margaret Shuart of Gillette.
He had an adventurous spirit and a love of roving which took him into many states of the west, much of it on horseback. He had traveled Colorado, New Mexico, Nevraska, Kansas, Arizona, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana, following the railroads as they pushed across the country and working in mining camp towns.
He ented into many kinds of businesses and jobs.
One of his early day enterprises was carried on in Lordsburg, Colorado, below a then thriving mining camp. He in partnership with a brother, rented and sold horses and saddles to men wishing to go to the mines. Then a man at the mine would buy them back and drive them to Lordsburg.
When a stage line was established to the mine, the brothers decided to drive their horses to Abilene, Kansas, the rail end. They traded the horses for sheep near Pueblo and continued their drive delivering the sheep to Abilene at the end of the long trail.
He first came to the present site of Gillette in November, 1890, in reponse to a request from his brother to help him in a business in Donkey Town. The old town was several miles southwest of Gillette. It was believed then that the railroad would go through that point, and a town was established there.
He rode his horse into Gillette in a blizzard and shared a tent with J.L. (Jew Jake) Kaufman. This established a friendship that endured through the years.
He was told when he first came west that he must carry a gun. He is reported to have answered that guns got people into trouble and although he lived in many rough towns and had seen much lawlessness, he never carried a "shooting iron."
In partnership with his brother, Sam, they bought the AK horse brand and started a business of catching and breaking wild horses. It is thought these horses were the original property of the old 101 ranch.
They built up a substantial horse ranch in the early days. Andy sold out to his brother, Sam, in 1906, as he believed the newly inveted horsless carriage might in time replace horses. Sam Ditto continued handling horses for several years, but Andy started raising cattle.
His original homestead was near the coal mine, that property now being part of the holdings of the Wyodak Coal & Manufacturing Co.
He had the varied fortune of a pioneer, as money was quickly made or lost in those early days. He was very generous to the people who were "down on their luck' and made many unsecured loans that were not repaid.
When a man past 60 years old, he started again with a homestead near Rozet. He was married in 1904 to Marguerite Goalloway, who passed away in 1906. Later in 1909 he was married to Daisy Rawley, who preceded him in death in September 1946.
Although he did not have children of his own, he was very fond of children, and would buy candy for them in grounps in town. He had a habit of giving a colt to babies in town, whose parents would let him name them.
He is survived by his sister, Mrs. Margaret Shuart, nieces, Mrs. J. Raby Padgett of Gillette and Mrs. Henry DeRidder of Opportunity, Washington, and three nephews, Ernest Dito of Cheyenne, Chester Ditto of Rawlins and Sammy Ditto of Oakland, California."
The News-Record wishes to thank Mrs. Padget for facts and incidents of his life.
The deceased, the son of the late John Ditto, has many relatives in this vicinity.