Below items from "Tingley Items" and other news stories in the Mount Ayr Ringgold Record, 1880 - 1881, in addition to the John BLAUER scrapbook items from the Mount Ayr paper called The Onward, 1878 - 1882, reflect the energy, optimism, and enthusiasm of Tingley's first citizens as they created the new community. The Tingley column in the Ringgold Record had several headings, such as "Tingley Hash, " and were signed "Fer ment" or "Turn Table" - probably all written by O. C. HOUSE, with his light-hearted style and frequently flippant perspective. Space prevents reprinting the complete items, but the following resumes suggest the prevailing mood.

Corn sold at 10-cents a bushel.

"Tingley Center" School (located across the road north of the present [1983] Charles CASE home) opened with Fannie CALFEE as teacher.

Methodist Church Sunday School as held at the schoolhouse but closed for the winter.

School No. 8 [Pleasant View] school teachers was Julia GALLOWAY.

C. C. BOSWORTH set up a feed mill in connection with his cheese factory.

Corn sold at 15-cents a bushel hauled to Afton.

There have been 1,000 acres of prairie broken in Tingley Township in the last year.

School No. 8 [Pleasant View] closed for the winter.

Land in Jefferson Township is selling for $10 to $20 an acres.

Since the sale, some people have been blazing trees not quite on the line - probably for the purpose of claiming them and the land at some future time.

March 27 - Ben LORIMOR and James PRICE are starting new houses. Ben ASHBURY bought the CARSON land.

March 27 - C. C. BOSWORTH is Ringgold County Representative to the Lower House of the General Assembly.

March 27 - Lots of flax is being sown in Tingley Township.

March 27 - Railroad interest is being worked up.

October 1 - Lots of diptheria deaths reported.

Building is being done on country homes.

JOHNSTON and DRAKE have bought a corn sheller.

The border city of Eugene is to lose its merchant, George SWAIN, to Tingley.

The new county bridge has been completed near the east line of Tingley Township.

Hugh BRECKENBRIDGE is building an addition to his home.

April - Among new arrivals is a baby boy at TAPPS.

April - Mr. SNYDER has arrived and is breaking prairie and has built a stable. His house will be built this fall.

Spring - Oats are light, wheat is good, flax making 10 to 12 bushel per acre.

Spring - Wm. SMITH and Miss McREYNOLDS of Union Co. were married by Rev. G. C. NIXON.

Spring - W. B. STARKE finished building a house of M. MARINER just over the Liberty Township line. GARVEY and DILLEY built one for Emmons BERRY.

Spring - We still have excitement caused by an occasional visit from the C.B.&Q. [railroad].

Spring - Teachers are No. 8 [Pleasant View] Gusta ZURICH, teacher; Price School Fannie CALFEE, teacher; Center School Miss SNYDER, teacher.

March - John STAFFORD is building a new home.

March - Fred BLAUER, wife and children, Will, Fred, John, and Edith, have bought three eighties south of No. 8 schoolhouse. They are putting up corn cribs and a stable and will build a house this fall.

May - C. K. GRIMES has the finest ornamental door yard in Tingley.

May - Corn is still in the field ungathered. Too wet a winter and spring. Wheat is a failure, also buckwheat and flax.

August 10 - Surveys began last fall for the "Drake" [railroad] line called the Mo., Iowa, Nebr. R.R. and our township was called upon for a 5% tax to aid in building a road. It failed. Work on the C.B. &Q. branch railroad is progressing. Forty to fifty teams are at work in Section 22. The difficulties in regard to the location of Tingley town have been satisfactorily settled and we are to have a station as originally planned.

August 10 - BLAUER, HARRIS, ATWOOD, and ROMKEY put down new brick wells.

November - No rain since May 39th flood when bridges were washed out.

November - Corn and oats are wanted for teams working on the railroad. Corn is scarce so they are offering 50-cents a bushel.

November - George SWAIN has completed his moving over from Eugene and is building a home.

November 5 - Henry MORRISON has rented the Mrs. S. BERRY farm.

November 5 - Wm. TAPP bought 120 acres in Section 34.

November 5 - Jake FRANE and W. K. PECKHAM have bought near the Center schoolhouse.

November 5 - The new railroad from Humeston to Clarinda will have a station by the name of Tingley; the grade is ready and rails are laid as far as Grand River east.

November 5 - Due to town site troubles, the streets and alleys were not laid out until the Town Site Co. bought the land and had it surveyed.

November 16 - A youthful but ambitious town is coming to the top. The town has five business houses, a doctor, a road master, and probably next week a Justice of the Peace or Mayor will be duly installed.

November 16 - Here in Iowa, out on the prairie, on the grand divide between the new Platte and Grand Rivers, stands a town, fresh and new - not a street gutter - and on level ground with virgin sod of the prairies in the roadway. No plow has ever run a furrow in the town. News in and around the town is one of cheerful prospects. This town will soon have all that is left of Eugene, a good village on the road from Mt. Ayr to Afton.

November 16 - Tingley laid the foundation for a $1200.00 Methodist Church a few days ago by subscribing $400.00 to start with.

December - Mr McCREIGHT and Mr. HOWLAND are the new storekeepers and doing a good business.

December - Dr. James NICHOL is our new Doctor.

December - Sam ENGLAND has bought land in Tingley Township.

February - Henry MORRISON and Julia GALLOWAY were married by Rev. BROWN. Henry BRECKENRIDGE and Lou MORRISON were married. L. P. BERRY and Edna RYAN were married by Rev. G. J. NIXON.

April 13 - Tingley is booming: 21 dwellings and business houses, plus a number of stables, 2 dry good stores, 2 lumber yards, 2 agricultural establishments, 1 restaurant, 2 carpenter firms, 1 livery and feed barn, 1 blacksmith, 1 hardware and another one coming, and 1 other store about finished.

April 13 - Tingley school board allows $165 per district for teaching during the coming year, except District 5 which gets $175.

From Mr. Frank B. SHELDON'S letter in 1954 in response to an invitation to the 50th Anniversary of the Tingley State Savings Bank. Mr. SHELDON'S role inthe bank's organization is included in the bank's history.

I hope you will pardon me for referring to early history, not only of the bank, but of Tingley Township and your town.

In the early 80's when the railroad came through the county from Humeston to Shenandoah, the question of the townsite was considered. The railroad compnay wanted to locate a station where Tingley now stands. The land was owned by non-residents, the AVENELL brothers, Charles and Jim, who thought they could make some easy money. Jim AVENELL lived near Eugene, his brother Charles in Illinois, and the land was owned by some people in Michigan. The AVENELLS slipped up to Michigan and bought the 400 acres and then asked the railroad as much for 80 as they paid for the 400 acres. The railroad townshite company said they would not located the station on that land, but on farther west. The result was to get the townsite company to located where the town now is. The AVENELLS had to give the company 80 acres to get them to locate there.

At that time the post office was on my father's farm, five miles northeast of Tingley, so he volunteered to have the office moved to Tingley on the railroad. The town of Tingley was named after the original post office in Union County, about two miles east of our home, and was named after Tingley CORNWALL, who operated the office when it was first established. He sold his farm and moved west. The post office was then moved to my father's [Edgar SHELDON] farm and kept there until it was moved to Tingley.

George SWAIN, who was operating a store in Eugene at the time the railroad came, moved his store to Tingley, was appointed postmaster, and asked my father if he could take me to help run the post office. He gave his consent and, although I was only 16-years-old, I had helped run and look after the office when it was on our farm.

The railroad was completed when I was with Mr. SWAIN. Two sets of men that were building the railroad, one from the east and one from the west, met in Tingley and were there for some time waiting to be sent to some other location. There was a druggist here named Dr. St. JOHN who sold liquor. Each bunch had a dog and the dogs got into a fight in the street near SWAIN'S store; soon the men started a fight and all that day sure was a "Wild West."

The railroad fellows rode up and down the street shooting off revolvers and started to take over the town. Tingley had no police, but things got so rough toward evening that Mr. SWAIN sent his brother out to John COIE'S, justice of the peace 3 miles north of Tingley, to swear in three men as officers. However, after a lot of fights, the business men had St. JOHN leave his store and lock it up, so they could not get any more liquor.

That night the drugstore was set on fire, supposedly by the railroad bunch. Anyway, it burned not only the drugstore but ROWELL'S harness shop, a furniture store, and hotel, all on the south side of the street east of SWAIN'S store.

As there was no fire department then, they tried to save what they could by carrying stuff out of the building. Then the railroad bunch stole a lot of harness and other things, and carried them to their tents where they were living.

The next morning SWAIN sent a man to Mt. Ayr by horseback for the sheriff. They searched the tents and found most of the stolen property and arrested about six of the ringleaders. Then the railroad boss got busy and moved the crew out.

It was a wild time, and I am sure that nothing like it happened in Ringgold County before or after.

SOURCE: Tingley, Iowa Centennial: 1883 - 1983. Pp. 9-11. PSI, Inc. Belmond IA. 1983.
Courtesy of Mount Ayr Public Library, September of 2011

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, September of 2011