Co-founder and first Chancellor of Washington University. Contributed to public education in St. Louis; not a staunch abolitionist despite common belief; writings show complex views on abolitionism and slavery-related events; involved with Western Sanitary Commission.
William Dings was born in 1841 and died in 1924. During the Civil War, Dings served for the Confederacy as Captain of Company C, 8th Missouri Infantry. After the Civil War ended in 1865, Dings returned to St. Louis and farmed. He is listed on an 1870 plat map as owning land in what is now Tyson Research Center. Dings’ father Fred Dings was an enslaver and the 1860 Census lists two women aged 28 and 18, a 4-year-old girl, and a 5-year-old boy as being enslaved by him.
William tells the story of how he became the guardian of a child, Lily, whose mother Barbara was a "colored woman." When Lily’s mother, Barbara, died, Lily was given to Judy, Archer Alexander’s wife, to care for. But when Judy died, Archer asked William to care for Lily, which he did. Then William learned that Lily had an older sister, Lizzie, who was in the care of Colonel John Balfour. Colonel Balfour asked William to become legal guardians for both girls, which he did. Colonel Balfour gave William US Bonds to help pay for the girls’ care. William is asking General Sherman to ask his brother John Sherman, Secretary of the Treasury, to help get the money from the bonds so he can use it for care of the girls. William also states that Archer Alexander has been in his service since 1863 when he gave him protection under authority of Provost Marshall. He also says Archer Alexander was the “original of the kneeling slave in the Lincoln Emancipation group by Thomas Ball.” William Greenleaf Eliot to Gen. Sherman.
This newspaper advertisement, placed by Henry Shaw, promises a $300 reward for the capture of Sarah and $100 for her son, both of whom Henry Shaw enslaved. Sarah is a "mulatto woman" about twenty years of age, "of medium height, slender, consumptive make, and bad teeth, some of which have been gold plugged in front," and her son is "four years old, a strong, hearty looking child, with curly hair, and a shade darker than the woman."
This newspaper ad was published in the Missouri Republican on May 25, 1855. Henry Shaw places a $300 reward for Jim, who, according to the ad, calls himself Jim Kennerly, who was enslaved by Shaw but escaped.
Jim is described to have aged about twenty as of 1855, about five(?) feet six inches tall: rather stout made, mild spoken, intelligent, and called himself Jim Kennerly.
Starks S. Cockrill Sr. (1795-1862), born in Virginia and a veteran of the War of 1812 during which he served as corporal in a Kentucky regiment, moved with his family to Missouri in the 1820s. By 1830, Cockrill held three people in slavery in Bonhomme Township. He received United States land grants in the region on several occasions, including in 1832, 1835, 1840, 1845, and 1853. The families of Starks S. Cockrill Sr., and his sons Christopher Cockrill and Starks Cockrill, Jr., all described as farmers in the 1850 census, lived next to one another in Bonhomme and held nine people in slavery. The families of Starks Cockrill Sr. and Jr. moved to Texas by 1860, but retained land in Missouri according to plat maps of 1862 and 1870. Starks Cockrell Jr. fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War.
Simon Abeles lived from 1829 to 1862. He moved to Missouri in 1844, two years after his brother, Adolph Abeles. Simon is recorded as a landowner on plat maps of the current-day Tyson Research Center in 1862 and 1870. While Simon did not marry or have children, he was part of the Austrian Taussig-Abeles family group. These two families were intertwined by frequent marriages.
Sarah was sixteen years old when she and her four-month-old son were sold at a public auction the entrance of the St. Louis courthouse to settle the estate of their deceased enslaver, Eliza Brown. Henry Shaw purchased them at this auction for $600 on October 16, 1850.
