"Doc" Samuel Warren DeLONG (1863-1940) was Tingley's M.D. in the classic tradition from 1909 until his death in 1940 after a long struggle with angina. Born and raised on a woodland farm near Andover, Mo. - he farmed, taught a country school, preached at the country church, and courted our Aunt Emma HEYER (1870-1955). She favored another suitor, however, so Warren married Charity THOMAS of Kansas and they had five children [Earnest, Joseph, Martin, Florence and Lloyd] plus several grandchildren (? were the DeLONG children old enough to be married at this time ?) before Charity died in 1902 [ten weeks after Lloyd's birth].

Not satisfied with his progress to that point, Warren went to St. Joseph, Mo., working his way through law school and hung his attorney shingle back at Cainesville, MO. Within a few months he concluded, "I'd have to be a crook to be a successful lawyer"' so he returned to St. Joe and worked his way through medical school, graduating in 1907 at the head of his class.

In the meantime, Emma HEYER'S fiance died before they could be married, and she had come to Tingley to help [her brothers] John and Fred in the HEYER Brothers store. Dr. Warren resumed his suit; he and Emma married in late 1907; and early in 1908 he started his practice in Tingley.

NOTE: Of Dr. and Charity DeLONG'S children, different family members raised them. Edna (DeLONG) HAMILTON raised Joseph and Florence for a while and also took care of Warren and Edna's aging mother, Margaret (DOWNEY) DeLONG. Mr. and Mrs. Robert DeLONG raised Martin. Earnest was old enough to be on his own at this time. Lloyd was in two or three foster homes before he was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Elbert PERCELL.

Doc was early enough to be a traditional horse and buggy doctor, recalling that he never removed his clothes during a three-week pneumonia epidemic. The barn that housed his team and buggy, also Emma's White Brahma chickens, now [1983] stands on Clair HEYER'S "cottage" property.

Then Doc gradualy shifted to the auto age. First an Overland roadster (1911); a 1918 Buick roadster with removeable winter top; on to a 1925 Star coupe; finally a Dodge Victory and another Dodge.

 Patients frequently paid their accounts with home-killed meat and chickens, eggs, fruit and vegetables; and the same came as gifts. Friendly patients, if not in great pain, timed their office visits to not interrupt Doc's listening to the WHO afternoon Wheaties baseball broadcasts by Iowa's most famous sportscaster, Ronald "Dutch" REAGAN. Every day Doc ate half a box of Wheaties for breakfast, then finished the box that evening for supper.

After his first heart attack in 1926, Doc hired a driver for all except town calls - mainly Bert HOUSE, but Warren of Clair when they were there during holiday and summer vacations. Doc and Emma's was their second home.

Clair's vivid memories are:Sterring the Overland while sitting on Doc's lap. The big Edison with records of MAKE THAT TROMBONE LAUGH, DARDANELLA, WHISPERING. . .; the RCA table radio with built-in speaker for Coon Sanders and His Nighthawks. . . Driving to Iowa City hospital through an ice storm with a boy who had a burst appendix; across the Missouri line to visit Doc's mother and sister Edna; his pipe and Granger tobacco; his medical case by the kitchen door; consuming a watermelon and recovering on the couch; frosty mugs of beer, one each, at Creston on a hot day while Emma mumbled; Emma's applesauce.

Warren HALTOM'S flashbacks recall their close relationship and the seven full summers (1922-1928) he stayed with Doc and Emma. "He was a sincere and kind-hearted man - I never heard him say anything really bad about anyone. How he enjoyed sports. Doc's honesty with, and compassion for, his patients. He loved youngsters, and vice versa. Our many trips to Creston and St. Joseph hospitals on dirt, mud, and sometimes gravel roads. Emma's immaculate housekeeping and how she would get after me if she didn't think I was scrubbed clean.

Emma was a member of the Kensington Club, active in church, and managed their home on split-second timing. Both were life long members of the Christian Church, Doc serving as elder and on the board, and he could preach a more scholarly sermon than many of the local preachers. Doc also was a member and president of the school board in the 1920s.

The Bible that Doc gave Emma at Christmas, 1912 is inscribed by him, "Take it at all times and places as your counselor."

~ by nephews Warren "Larry" HALTOM and Clair B. HEYER

NOTE: Dr. DeLONG, son of Samuel W. DeLONG (1841-1902) and Margaret (DOWNEY) DeLONG (1841-1935), was born November 3, 1863, and died at the age of 76 years on June 10, 1940, Creston, Iowa. Emma C. (HEYER) DeLONG was born in 1870, the daughter of Bernhardt and Anna (OLSON) HEYER, and died August 13, 1955. They were interred at Tingley Cemetery.

Charity (THOMAS) DeLONG was born February 10, 1872, Harrison County, Missouri, and died at the age of 29 years on January 17, 1902 with interment at Andover Cemetery, Harrison County, Missouri.

Earnest DeLONG was born September 25, 1891, and died January 23, 1951. He married Ruth E. (HUNT) DeLONG.

Joseph DeLONG was born December 16, 1892. He married Gertrude THOMAS.

Martin DeLONG was born February 2, 1895, and died March 29, 1949. He married Lottie M. ELMORE.

Florence DeLONG was born December 18, 1899, and married Arthur MILLER. She died at the age of 20 years on May 15, 1920 from poisoning after eating pork and beans that had sat out overnight.

Lloyd Delong was born December 1, 1901, and died October 18, 1973, Topeka, Kansas. He was married to Ina Irene MERRIFIELD, born February 20, 1902, and died in Cainesville, Missouri on January 27, 1966.

SOURCE: Tingley, Iowa Centennial: 1883 - 1983. p. 124. PSI, Inc. Belmond IA. 1983.
Courtesy of Mount Ayr Public Library, September of 2011

Notes and transcription by Sharon R. Becker, September of 2011