Dinkins House and Lodge

John Rufus Dinkins (c.1745-1811), a descendant of original settler James Dinkins, bought a 241-acre tract of land in 1795 where he built the Dinkins House and Lodge. It is possible that he lived on the land as early as 1788, building the older two-story lodge house as his first dwelling. John prospered as one of the earliest and most affluent planters in Mecklenburg County. That success prompted the construction of a grand planatation house more befitting his wealth, likely between 1795 and 1809. The property also included the Dinkins family cemetery, likely established around 1798, the year of the earliest known burial at the site. According to local tradition, the house was an inn or way station on the stagecoach road between Charlotte and Camden, South Carolina, that traveled through the lands of the Catawba Indian Nation along an Indian trading path that became known by its present name, Nations Ford Road. 

John Dinkins’ wealth was predicated on the exploitation of enslaved labor. Indeed, he was one of the largest enslavers in Mecklenburg County in the early nineteenth century. According to the U.S. Census, he owned at least twelve enslaved persons as of 1790, seventeen as of 1800, and twenty-one in 1810. When he died one year later, his estate included thirty-four enslaved people, all of whom were bequeathed to his family. John’s son Frederick (1773-1824) received four enslaved persons as well as the Dinkins House and Lodge and much of the family land. Like his father, Frederick exploited enslaved labor. Per the 1810 U.S. Census, he owned at least sixteen enslaved individuals, a number that he increased to twenty-four by 1820, of which eight were children under the age of 14. When Frederick died in 1824 without a will, John Springs was appointed as executor to operate the Dinkins estate – including management of the family’s enslaved persons – for Frederick’s minor children. Springs hired out most of the Dinkins’ enslaved labor on a yearly basis.  

Although the family property was granted to Frederick’s widow Sarah Dinkins (1788-1850) following his death, ownership of the Dinkins House and Lodge remains unclear between 1834 and 1855, when the land was purchased by John Milton Williamson (born 1813). Williamson's daughters, Martha E. Grier and Elizabeth C. Bell, inherited the property in or around 1883. In 1890, Elizabeth became the sole owner of what was then the Family’s 285-acre estate. The property, including the Dinkins House and Lodge, remained in the Bell family into the 1990s. Most of that land was thereafter developed for light industrial use, threatening the Dinkins House and Lodge with demolition. The house and lodge were sold in 1992 and moved to its current site, which is shared with another designated local historical landmark, the William Lee House.