When the Humeston and Shenandoah Railroad [in partnership with the Burlington and Wabash Companies] came through the northern part of Ringgold County in 1881, the railroad purchased the land for the future site of Tingley from area farmers. The town company bought 200 acres of land from the AVENELL Brothers, F. W. HARDING, and George SWAIN. The railroad was operational by the spring of 1882. Several businesses were established and Tingley had 200 residents.

  Everything was shipped on the trains. When people moved from one area to another, they moved by train - livestock, furniture, machinery, and themselves. All goods sold by the the local businessmen in Tingley would be shipped by train - buggies, furniture, carpets, chicken grit, all items to the grocery stores, ice from the Clarinda ice factory, wool, apples, potatoes, and later - even cars.

October 20, 1910 - Soil Special Train stopped in Tingley and was greeted by an audience of 250 to 300 people in the coaches and on the platform. Lecturers talked about crop rotation.

October 19, 1911 - Burlington Exhibit Car stopped in Tingley with the view of attracting settlers to the new irrigated lands along the Burlington's new rail lines in Wyoming and Montana. The car had samples of grains, grasses, fruits, and vegetables grown in the Big Horn and Yellowstone Valley.

March 28, 1912 - Seed Corn and Soil Special Train stopped for 1 hours for lectures delivered from large audience coaches attached to the train. Henry WALLACE of Wallace's Farmer was one of the speakers.

June 20, 1912 - Des Moines Booster Train containing 80 representatives of the leading business and professional firms of Des Moines stopped in Tingley. The Iowa State Band gave a splendid concert. Des Moines was bidding for our businessmen's trade.

  March 9, 1911 - The Iowa Dairy Special had a combination sleeper-diner where the party lived, a car transformed into a modern dairy barn, and 2 lecture coaches. It was sent out by the State Dairy Association.

May 22, 1913 - Burlington Trade Excursion Train, with a party of 75 Burlington manufacturers, jobbers, and wholesalers, stopped in Tingley. FISCHER'S famous band gave a concert on Main Street . The 75 boosters made visits to all the stores, after singing their "Burlington Song" left for Diagonal amidst cheers and best wishes from the Tingley people.

April 13, 1916 - Good Roads Special Train was in Tingley for an hour. The train had an exhibit of U.S. Government model of good roads, showing the stages of construction and road machinery used in construction. A free dinner and free team feed was offered to every farmer who rode a road drag into Tingley. The high school band played. The speaker gave a plea for hard-surfaced roads - one thing we can bequeath to our prosperity. Murl DeWITT rode a drag 5 miles; Will BLAUER, 3; Geo. W. IRVING, 1 1/2; W. L. HENDERSON and A. A. ALLEN 1/ 3/4; Oscar McKEE, 2; B. S. BALL, 5 3/4.

People could catch the Passenger No. 2 to Ellston, visit a while or tend to their business, then come back to Tingley on Passenger No. 1 going west at 4:20 p.m.

  Tingley's depot closed in 1945. Then it was used for various comminuty meetings such as the Lion's club. After Ally JARRED purchased the Tingley depot in the 1960's, he was removing the floor boards under the agent's office and found numerous whiskey bottles. The depot is now [1983] used as a heavy equipment shop.

  SOURCES: Ringgold County History, Compiled and written by the Iowa Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of Iowa, Sponsored by Ringgold County Superintendent of Schools, Mount Ayr, Iowa. 1942.

Tingley, Iowa Centennial: 1883 - 1983. Pp. 37, 56. PSI, Inc. Belmond IA. 1983.
Courtesy of Mount Ayr Public Library, September of 2011

Transcriptions by Sharon R. Becker, September of 2011