J.W. Tingler, Jr. bought Hubbard’s Service in 2007 and renamed the business Farm & Fuel.
He and his wife, Karen Tingler, were married in 1981, and the couple set out to make improvements to the business located 121 N. Alleghany Ave. in Covington.
J.W., whose wife lost her battle to cancer in Oct. 2019, recalled, “I had to go all the way to the end of Route 220 to find my wife.”
Karen lived in Sayre, Pa. where Route 220 North ends, and on July 1, 1989, Karen gave birth to John Tingler who passed away in April of 2020.
Concerning the completion of the improvements at Farm & Fuel that the couple had worked on together to achieve, J.W. expressed his remorse that his wife and son were not able to be with him to see the project completed.
“They were here to see it started, but they were not here to see it finished,” J.W. lamented.
He continued, “I wish they could have been here to see it finished.”
In addition to the store that Hubbard ran, J.W. has erected a large all-service building adjacent to the store, one that has four automotive bays with lifts, three for automobiles, and one for heavy-duty trucks.
The new building also features a special workroom that has a trolley system for lifting no-turn lawnmowers and other heavy machines onto a metal platform to be serviced.
Inside his new building, he has added a waiting room area for his customers that features tables and benches with a food service window nearby for orders to be taken.
The unique waiting room that functions as a café as well is lined with photographs of prominent people who J.W. has chosen to honor for helping make Covington a great place to live, beginning with the likes of General Leonard Covington, the founder of Covington who was killed in action in 1813 at the age of 45.
After being born in Covington in 1953, J.W. attended Covington City Schools, and he played JV football for Phil Douglass at Covington High School. Douglass later became the principal of Alleghany High School.
J.W. recalled, “I had to have a car when I was in high school, and I quit playing football to go to work.”
He considers his father, Jimmy Tingler, to be his No. 1 hero. A plaque that honors his father is on display beside the door to his new building, and the text on the plaque reveals that Jimmy was born as the youngest of seven children and that he lost his father at the age of two.
After serving in the U.S. Army Airforce in Japan and Guam in the Western Pacific, Jimmy returned home and landed a job with the local telephone company while serving as a member of the Virginia National Guard for 20 years.
After high school, J.W. went to work in telecommunications for Automatic Electric out of Chicago.
He noted, “For my training, I attended Cleveland Institute of Electronics.”
After his training was completed, J.W. advanced quickly in the company after beginning as an installer before moving up to become a supervisor.
He remembered, “From supervisor, I moved up to project manager and then district manager over 27 states, and before I retired, I was in charge of offices in Lexington and Morehead in Kentucky and one in Fort Wayne, Indiana and one in Durham, North Carolina.”
As for the way he came to purchase Hubbard’s Service, J.W. said that he retired in 2003 but owned and operated Pine Hill Farms on Route 18 in Potts Creek where he operated Bunny Bale Hay from 1998 till he decided to pursue another business.
After spending 33 years in the telecommunications business, he retired and changed his vision of business from baling hay to owning an all-purpose business that operates 24-7.
In addition to non-ethanol gasoline, Farm & Fuel, which J.W. established on Jan. 1, 2007, sells real diesel fuel, not bio-diesel, dyed off-road diesel, not bio-diesel, and DEF @ the pump (diesel exhaust fluid).
Other fuels Farm & Fuel provides to its customers are dyed kerosene, propane tank filling or exchanges, and premium wood pellets.
The auto repair department remains open seven days per week from 8:00 a.m. till 6:00 p.m., and the small engine repair service is open each day of the week while operating during the same hours as the auto repair department.
Farm & Fuel is one of the few businesses that never closes. J.W. observed, “We are here to serve our customers and our community all day every day, including all major holidays.”
J.W. has hired workers who reside in the community, and he caters to working folk by offering a wide variety of goods and services, including home-cooked food and Hunt Brothers Pizza.
The business also sells a wide variety of tools, trapping equipment, household cleaning products, lawn and garden supplies, chain saws, leaf blowers, string trimmers, hedge trimmers, brush cutters, pole saws, and sundry other tools and supplies to fill the needs of homeowners, business owners, and farmers.
J. W. said, “Farm & Fuel is 100 percent locally owned and is totally staffed with employees that reside within the community.”
He concluded, “When I came here, I had too many irons in the fire, and since buying the business, I really had to concentrate on one thing, this store.”
As J.W. walks into his new building, he is immediately greeted by framed photographs of those he considers have paved the way for Covington and for his business to flourish.
A partial list of prominent citizens who have passed away that J.W. has chosen to memorialize is Dr. William J. Ellis, Delbert Dyle (D.D.) Kern, Victorio Guiseppe Cucci, Wallace Byer, Earl Bailey, George Garten, Eugene “Doodlebug” Dressler, Hale Collins, Major Richard Bierne, Mad Anne Bailey, Sam Snead, Francis J. “Bootie” Albert, Raymond Snead, Sr., Carolyn B. Nettleton, and Susan Parker.
Other rows of framed photographs on display are of NASCAR drivers, movie stars, and famous athletes, transforming the dining area of J.W.’s new building into a setting suitable for taking his customers on a visual, sentimental journey down memory lane.
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