Snapshots of History: Tingley Service Station
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By Mike Avitt
Automobiles first began to appear in Ringgold County in the years 1905-09.
By 1910 cars were becoming more common and in need of maintenance and fuel. Autos advanced well ahead of roads and service stations. Tires were inferior and roads were treacherous.
Repair and blacksmith shops were already in existence ahead of automobiles and the operators were experienced with the mechanical repair of such things as threshing machines, sewing machines, and stationary steam engines. Parts that could not be obtained were fabricated.
Still, gasoline, combustion engines were somewhat new.
Filling stations did not yet exist, but motorists could get gasoline at hardware stores, blacksmith shops, and repair shops.
As the number of cars increased, the need for service stations could no longer be ignored. The first filling stations in Ringgold County were built in Mount Ayr in 1920. By 1924 service stations were found all throughout the county.
The first repair shop in Tingley that was established specifically for automobiles was opened in April 1917 by Norval Maggard and his shop was located on the south side of Main Street.
It wasn’t until 1923 that Maggard got a tire repair machine. The tire repair process at this time was called “vulcanizing.”
In 1925, Lyle Brown and Emmet Heizer took over the Maggard Garage and Norval Maggard began operating the newly-built repair garage of C. W. Lent.
In 1927, Carson Williams rented the Heizer garage and started a Chevrolet dealership with Paul Mason and L. N. Jacobs in charge. Williams also had the Chevrolet dealership in Diagonal.
The filling station shown in this week’s article was built in 1923 by William Brookman of Sharpsburg.
Work on the station, which would be erected with hollow-tile block with a stucco finish, began in October 1923 and was completed in late November.
The service station opened the last Saturday of November with a solitary gasoline pump and sold Royal Rose petroleum products.
Two months later the station was sold to E. M. Breckenridge. As Mr. Breckenridge was very busy, O. C. House ran the business in his absence. The building was painted in 1927 while Glenn Grout was the manager.
E. M. Breckenridge sold the station to R. G. Hogue in 1933. Clark Oxenrider was the fill-in operator at the Tingley Service Station at this time. Royal Rose gasoline was still being sold.
Also in 1933, Lyndon Richards opened a repair garage one block south of the schoolhouse. By 1934 this garage was selling Phillips 66 gasoline.
Frank Richards became owner of the Tingley Service Station in 1940 with Eldon Richards as operator. There was a great deal of competition by this time with Phillips 66, Skelly, and Sinclair gasoline being popular.
The former Tingley Service Station was torn down a couple of years ago and a recent tornado leveled the Tingley Community Building. The old United Presbyterian Church was razed last week and the former Christian Church is being saved from tornado damage. In the end, Tingley will have a new look.
We can’t save every building but we can take photographs of them.
