March 22, 2008

Dingler Cemetery in Douglas County, Georgia

Sandy Whittington, Chairman of the Douglas County Cemetery Preservation Committee, posted to the Dingler list on Rootsweb, about a recent cleanup of an abandoned Dingler cemetery in Douglas County, Georgia. Here is Sandy’s post:

I’m chairman of the Douglas County (Georgia) Cemetery Preservation Commission. We have undertaken a project to clean all the abandoned cemeteries in the county (there are 56 of them).

Yesterday we cleaned the Dingler family cemetery just off Kraft Drive in the southwestern area of Douglas County. We found inscribed markers for the following:

John T. Dingler — 3/4/1845 to 6/6/1897
Sarah Dingler — 9/7/1845 to 6/29/1907
Lela Dingler Dover — 5/21/1870 to 9/17/1912

We also found an inscribed footstone that matched those of the above three graves but bears the initials C.D. — despite probing the entire area, we did not find the corresponding grave marker. We don’t know if this 4th grave would be that of a Dingler or perhaps the husband of Lela. There are also five graves marked only with uninscribed fieldstones. These appear to be children’s graves and are likely the children of John and Sarah who disappear from census records while still very young.

John T. Dingler is 1-1-9-3 in the Dinglers of the South book on page 160. He is the grandson of Johannes and Nancy’s son William. I’ve asked Sandy if they have photos of the markers as well as coordinates for the cemetery.

Have any of our Georgia family visited this cemetery before? Add a comment if you have.

Posted by ladewig at March 22, 2008 9:18 AM
Comments

This is an interesting find. John Thomas Dingler was son of James Dingler, grandson of William Dingler and great-grandson of Johannes Dingler. He was also the brother to William Andrew Jackson Dingler. Many descendants of Wm. A. J. Dingler have attended, and continue to attend the annual Dingler reunions.

John Thomas Dingler married Sarah Cox in 1870. By the 1880 census, they were the parents of:

Lela, born 1872
Lloyd, born 1875
Della, born 1877
Mary, born 1880

I have just checked the 1900 census for this family. Sarah Cox Dingler was a widow by that time, and daughters Lela and Della were still unmarried and living at home with her. The census also shows that she was the mother of 6 children, of whom only 2 were still living. This means that two more children were born to the couple, and whether born before the 1880 census or afterwards, had died prior to the 1900 census. Also, Lloyd and Mary had died by 1900, as well. Robert Sims Dingler (nephew of John T. Dingler, and grandfather of the Dingler sisters of Mobile) was living next to Sarah Cox Dingler in 1900.

Lela Dover, husband Sam Dover, and daughter Viola Dover can be found on the 1910 census of Douglas County, GA. So, the stone marked "C.D." would seem to be the stone for another Dingler children rather than the husband of Lela Dingler Dover. It could also be the stone of a child of Lela Dingler Dover, as well.

Posted by: Terry Cowan on April 3, 2008 9:20 PM

i would like to get a copy of the cd of the dingler family history. i sent a letter to william dingler-paige in florida, but was returned. said he moved. if anyone can get me his new address i would be greatly appreciative. pls e-mail me. larrydnglr@yahoo.com

Posted by: larry dingler on June 16, 2008 9:19 PM

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