Historical Tyson Landowners
Julius Hutawa’s 1870 Atlas of St. Louis County, showing Dings’ land - a rectangular parcel along the southern edge of present-day Tyson.
William dings
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 as owning land on what is today the Tyson property in 1870. 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.
It is important to acknowledge that Dings’ father was an enslaver (listed under the name Fred). In the 1860 Census, the Dings’ enslaved three women, aged 28, 18, and 4, as well as a 5 year old boy.
Dings is listed as owning land on what is today the Tyson property in 1870.
Resources
Biro, E. Tyson Border Polygon. (2023) Tyson Research Center.
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.
Kearns, E. Dings’ Land 1870 ArcGIS Polygon. (2024) Washington University in St. Louis.
St. Louis Integrated Database of Enslavement | Washington University in St. Louis. (n.d.). Retrieved June 17, 2024, from https://sites.wustl.edu/enslavementstl/search/.
This Tyson landowner profile was researched and written by Undergraduate Fellow Emmett Kearns and edited by Undergraduate Fellow Juliana Morera during summer 2024.