The area around Ringgold was settled in 1892, when a land owner began selling parcels in the area where the Rock Island Line railroad built a line. The town was first named Harrisonia after the land owner, Joe Harris, but he renamed it Ringgold after his wife's family. A post office was established the same year.
As an intersection of rail lines, Ringgold became a market town for the immediate area, and it reached its highest population of around 400 in the mid-1920s.
On January 1, 2006, about half of the town was destroyed by a wildfire that burned 32 homes. The event prompted much Dallas/Fort Worth area media coverage.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.