Fonds F1009 - Fred Ings fonds

Frederick William "Fred" Ings, 1862-1936, was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and came to southern Alberta in 1881 where he established the Rio Alto Ranch. This property was on the Highwood River and was operated in partnership with his brother, James Walter Ings, 1856-1928. In 1900 Fred moved to Mosquito Creek, west of Nanton and developed the Midway Ranch. He married first May Walker Dodd, 1876-1898, and they had one son, Frederick Walker Ings, 1898-1978. In 1910 Fred married Edith Scatcherd, 1884-1972, of London, Ontario and they had two daughters, Mary Lavinia (Loughlin later Urquhart), 1913-2000, and Constance (Loree), 1919-?. Walter Ings married Frances Jane Hicks, 1861-1929 and they had two children, Gerald Walter, 1901-1916, and Marjorie Edith (Crawford-Frost), 1899-2003.

Shortly before his death Fred completed a manuscript on his experiences of early ranching. Some excerpts were published in the Lethbridge Herald in 1935 and in the Calgary Herald in July 1933 and July 1935. The memoirs were serialized in the Canadian Cattlemen between 1941 and 1945 and published as Before the Fences : Tales from the Midway Ranch : Autobiography by Frederick Ings / edited by Jim Davis. -- Calgary : Metra Printing, 1980.