The Ringens of St.Louis, Missouri

It took some sorting out to find out which of the many Ringens of German ancestry were those related to us.  Eventually I could clearly relate my great-grandmother Hattie Belle to John Ringen, her father from St. Louis Missouri.  The story is really interesting.

Johann Adam Heinzelman left Prussia, from what is now the German state of Baden-Wurttemberg, in 1837 at the age of 26.  He likely travelled with his wife Catherine, and his then 1 year-old daughter Frederika (ages are all approximate).  Johann went by John or Adam once he got to the United States, and settled in Ohio. 

By 1850, the Heinzelmans had seven children.  Adam and Catherine’s eldest was Frederika, and they had since welcomed George (12), Louisa (11), John (9), William (6), Lewis (2), and Charles (2 months) to their Ohio home.  Adam was a cigarmaker, and as a teenager, Frederika learned the craft as well.

It wasn’t long though before the eldest girls found husbands, and the German-American family started to grow.  On the 29^th of September, 1854, Frederika married Henry Timken, and by 1860, Henry (Herman) had witnessed the wedding of Louisa and a newcomer, John Ringen.  John and Henry were best friends, and they all found themselves living with the elder Heinzelman.  Adam Heinzelman, in fact, was a witness to John Ringen’s naturalization in 1858. 

1861 began a dark period in American history.  The civil war had just started its four years of battles and unrest.  Henry Timken and John Ringen joined the more than 200,000 Americans of German descent who fought on the Union side. Like many Americans of German descent, Ringen was against slavery.  This was not a popular opinion in late 19^th century St. Louis, as many living in Missouri had arrived from slaving states.  While Missouri itself was neutral, its population was divided.  Tensions were high in 1861 sparking what is now known as the Camp Jackson Affair.  On May 10, 1861, a large contingent of pro-southern Missouri militia prisoners of war were marched through the streets of St. Louis, having been captured by a largely German force of volunteers.  The volunteers themselves lined the streets to guard the prisoners.  The sharp divisions in the populace created a tense atmosphere.  Soon, civilians were hurling objects at the militia, soldiers fired, and a number of civilians were hurt and others killed.  Mobs rioted in the streets for two days and more civilians were shot and killed.  By the end of the affair, the death toll was 28.

It is quite conceivable that John and his friend Henry decided to join the fight on the union side after that.  John Ringen joined the 5^th Missouri State Militia Cavalry as a private, and Henry was in the infantry.  The remarkable part of this, of course, is that John Ringen had only been in the country for a couple of years.  However, his strong Union attachment was very consistent with the German-American population’s view.

John Ringen and his wife Louisa made it through the war, and by 1870 had two daughters (Louisa, 9, and Ida, 6), and a son Robert (2).  They were living on their own in St. Louis (JA Heinzelman having died by poisoning in 1869), and John owned property while working as a dealer in machinery and tinware.  By 1880, the relatively prosperous middle class family had grown, Their daughter Louise (known as Lulu) now 19, Ida 15, Robert 12, and their youngest daughters Harriet (or Hattie), 4, and Lizzie, just born. John dabbled in invention and held a number of patents.  He took Louisa and Hattie to Germany in 1880 and from there did more invention.  John is by this time a stove merchant and has embarked on a business that will lead him to further prosperity. 

It was in 1881 that John Ringen and George Kahle became partners in the manufacture of stoves, and the Ringen Stove company was born.  These two and another, Charles A. Stockstrom, incorporated the Quick Meal Stove Company in 1881.  This was the predecessor to the modern Magic Chef Company.  While John left the company in 1888, he did quite well for himself and his family.  As a well-respected business man, he was asked to join the Vapor Stove Manufactorers Association as Vice-President. 

The Ringens bought land in April 1896.  They bought the Rhode Island display house from the St.Louis World’s Fair in 1904 (although apparently much changed from the original).  He was reported to have moved the house to his country estate.

John and Louisa moved to California in 1915 to be with their daughter Jessie Doan who was quite ill.  She died in 1916, but her parents stayed behind with their other daughter Maude Ringen Drummond.  John died shortly after he celebrated his 61^st wedding anniversary with Louisa.  Louisa herself lived to a very healthy 83.  Both are buried in California.

Hattie, my direct relative, married Walter Cushing Allison sometime after 1890.  I will write more about Hattie and Walter later. 

Afterword:

You won’t find any ancestors bearing the last name Ringen from this clan.  John and Louisa’s only son, Robert, died in 1896, leaving behind his wife (Cornelia Prufrock) and a daughter (who married Fred Herman).  My grandfather’s middle name is Ringen, a middle name also shared by my aunt.  This is in a long tradition in our family of passing down maternal surnames as middle names.  Mine is Hayward, and perhaps my next story will be about that side of the family.

Sources:

Census: 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910

Tax records for St Louis

Emigration record for JA Heinzelman

Article:  1904 St.Louis World’s Fair- Rhode Island House Owned by John Ringen

Grave records for John and Louisa Ringen

Patent records for John Ringen

Passenger records for Ringen family 1880 trip to Germany

Civil war registry

California death registry 1918

Naturalization record 1858

Maryland Evening Times 1895
St.Louis University article on the Camp Jackson Affair