Tightwad, Missouri

Tightwad was originally called Edgewood, for the woods near the original town site.[4]

The village's unusual name is said to stem from an episode in which a store owner cheated a customer, who was a postman, by charging him an extra 50 cents for a better watermelon. Some sources claim the transaction involved a rooster rather than a watermelon.[5] Due to its proximity to Truman Reservoir, Tightwad saw some limited growth starting in the mid-1980s. As of 2010, the village's business district included a bank (see below), café, tavern, and convenience store.[6] As of April 2019, the bank is now closed and is being used for personal use.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 1.01 square miles (2.62 km²), of which 1.00 square mile (2.59 km²) is land and 0.01 square miles (0.03 km²) is water.[7]

The median income for a household in the village was $24,375, and the median income for a family was $51,250. Males had a median income of $35,417 versus $30,625 for females. The per capita income for the village was $18,981. There were no families and 16.7% of the population living below the poverty line, including no under eighteens and 21.4% of those over 64.[9]

The first Tightwad Bank opened in 1984 as a branch of the Citizens Bank of Windsor (Windsor, Missouri) at first housed in a portable trailer then eventually a one-story brick building still in use today.(Now currently out of business)[11] Publicity over the unusual name eventually led to deposits totalling over $2 million. However an expected business boom from nearby Truman Reservoir never materialized and the bank fell victim to armed robbery twice in the 1990s. Thus in November 2006, UMB, the bank's owner at the time, announced that the Tightwad branch bank would close and accounts would be shuffled to UMB locations in Warsaw and Clinton, Missouri.
In May 2008, Tightwad Bank was reopened, under new ownership, as an FDIC insured institution. The bank is a full-service branch of the former Reading State Bank, Reading, Kansas. To capitalize on the notoriety of the unusual name, the Reading locations' name was changed to Tightwad Bank as well.[12] "We're seeking the customers with a sense of humor", admitted bank co-owner Donald Higdon in a 2008 interview with The Washington Post.[11][13] In 2010 the two locations of Tightwad Bank reported combined deposits of over $20 million (US).[6] As of July 2018 Tightwad Bank in Tightwad Missouri is closed.