(1896-19??) was born in the rural and forested community of Enfield on August 16, 1896, the son of a master carpenter. His father
had emigrated from Scotland and, in the “new world” had evangelical ministry. His mother was Nellie Rosilla Guptill of Cherryfield, Maine, a descendent of that town’s first settler, a millwright by the name of Ichabod Willey. Following [Macdougall’s] birth, the new family moved four times in five years. . . . .
By age thirteen, he was working for his board for a widow – the only “man” on a hillside farm in Blandford, Massachusetts. . . . .
Returning from France and the First World War, he entered the theological seminary in Bangor, Maine.1
In 1923 MacDougall came to Bingham, where he became the minister in the Congregational Church after attending the Bangor Theological Seminary.
MacDougall, an avid sportsman, created the character of a fictional Maine guide, Dud Dean, who won many friends and admirers through the pages of Field & Stream magazine in the 1920s and 1930s. His son, Walter M. MacDougall, republished Arthur’s stories in 2001.
According to Mortimer Norton,
. . . he early showed a fondness for an outdoor life, and has spent the years exploring his celebrated northern region with rod and gun. Although the Kennebec River has been one of his favorite haunts, he says: “I’ve fished wherever I come to water, even in the Garonne, which I can’t recommend.” He enlisted in the A.E.F. during the World War.
In addition to his stories, MacDougall presented lectures and wrote poetry. His publications include the following:
“Novelties from Beaver Cuttings,” Boy’s Life. November, 1929. p. 55.
Dud Dean Yarns. Bingham, Me. The Bingham press, 1934
If It Returns with Scars. Bingham. Me. privately printed. 1942.
Dud Dean and the Enchanted. Manchester, Me. Falmouth Publishing. 1954.
1Macdougall, pp. xiv-xv.
Additional resources
Jordan, Elizabeth Goodrich. A History of the First Congregational Church of Bingham. Bingham, Me. First Congregational Church of Bingham. 1955. from http://www.binghamcongregational.org/history/history_goodrich.htm. (accessed 10/22/2010)
Lippincott, Bill. Arthur R. Macdougall, Jr., Maine Author: A Bibliography. c1983. Farmington, Me. University of Maine at Farmington. [University of Maine, Raymond H. Fogler Library, Special Collections; Maine State Library]
MacDougall, Arthur Raymond. Remembering Dud Dean: Arthur MacDougall’s Famous Tales of Everybody’s Favorite Maine Guide. Compiled and introduced by Walter M. MacDougall. Camden, Me. Countrysport Press. 2001.
Norton, Mortimer, ed. Angling Success by leading Outdoor Writers. New York: Macmillan, 1935.
Dr. Macdougall (“Mak”) was one of my predecessors at the Bingham church and was a dear friend. He died in 1983. Colby College awarded him the honorary Doctor of Divinity degree in 1953, if memory serves, and I believe Middlebury College similarly honored him. He lectured at the Middlebury Summer Writers’ Conference.