William Dings · WashU & Slavery

Description

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.

Bio

William Dings was born in 1841 to a Prussian father, Frederick W. Dings, and his wife, Ida M. Stein. 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 while also starting a lime and cement business with H. D. Hatch. Dings is listed on an 1870 plat map as owning land in what is now Tyson Research Center. In 1907, he started the Dings and Sons Lumber Company.

Dings married Tinie Bristow in 1868 and they had a son named William Wood Dings and a daughter named Eleanor Dings Dobyns. Dings died in 1924.

Dings was described as a Presbyterian and a Democrat and his favorite recreational activities were literature and mathematics.

Dings’ father was an enslaver, listed under the name Fred Dings. 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.

Birth Date

1841

Death Date

1924

Sex

Male

Child of

Frederick W. Dings and Ida M. Stein

Spouse of

Tinie Bristow

Parent of

William Wood Dings, Eleanor Dings Dobyns

Enslaver

Dings’ father was an enslaver, listed under the name Fred Dings. 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.

Dates of Tyson Land Ownership

1870

Bibliographic Citation

Resources:

Dings, Myron. (1927). The Dings Family in America. Genealogies, Memoirs and Comments. Privately published in Chicago, Illinois. Retrieved on 20 June 2024 from https://www.seekingmyroots.com/members/files/G001590.pdf.

Hutawa, Julius. Atlas of St. Louis County. Plat Map. Julius Hutawa, 1870. Missouri Historical Society Archives. http://collections.mohistory.org/resource/1096073?_gl=1*8tblrl*_gcl_au*OTg0MTQ3MTE3LjE3NDg1NDIyNDc.

St. Louis Integrated Database of Enslavement | Washington University in St. Louis. (n.d.). Retrieved June 17, 2024, from https://slide.wustl.edu/person/29197.