Biography - I. G. Henson

IRWIN GARFIELD (I.G.) HESSON

Irwin Garfield Hesson was born June 1881, on McKinney Creek, about one mile from
Centenary Cemetery, in Windsor Township, Lawrence County, Ohio. His parents
were George Washington Hesson and Melissa Ann Harless Hesson. I.G. Hesson was
the fifth of twelve children born to his parents. He was a lifelong resident
of Lawrence County, Ohio. The Hesson brothers often recalled the fact that there
were enough Hesson guys to have a baseball team within their family and I.G. was
a left handed pitcher for the Hesson team. I.G. was a zealous learner. He loved
to read and study anything he could find. His brothers told the story that when
I.G. was a young man plowing the fields on their farm, he would have a book in one
hand and the reins of the horses in the other hand.

Even though I.G. had a passionate interest in baseball, a high integrity toward
duties, and a keen interest in learning he didn’t let that interfere with his
pursuit of the love of his life. In the Greasy Ridge area, the boys on one
side of the hill courted the girls on the other side of the hill. He and his
brothers courted the Dunfee girls on the other side of Hesson Hollow, a short
distance from the Hesson farm. I.G. was particularly interested in Maggie, the
youngest girl in the Dunfee family. The Hesson family had one old horse,so the
Hesson brothers would have to take turns, two of them at a time, riding bareback,
to visit the girls. I.G. used to tell that, as a young man, he could stand on
the porch of his home, look over the hill, and see Maggie and her siblings
working in their yard and around the house.

In the 1800s and early 1900s, if one completed the eighth grade and could pass a
state examination, he or she would be allowed to teach. I.G. went to Ironton,
Ohio, took the test, and passed it. That was the beginning of his long career
of teaching children throughout Lawrence County, Ohio. Many of his former students
have said that he was the best teacher they ever had.

Irwin Garfield Hesson married Margaret Rachel (Maggie) Dunfee on March 31, 1906,
in Ironton, Lawrence County, Ohio. That was the beginning of fifty-one years of
happiness together. The newly wed couple began housekeeping in a “Little Valley
or Flat Land” on Greasy Ridge Road, about one mile from the old Nance home. I.G.
and Maggie became the parents of seven children: Romulus, Paul, Willanelle,
Irwin Dwight, Tom, Leo, and Bob. Sadly for I.G. and Maggie, their first born,
Romulus, died at the age of seven months, and Irwin Dwight, their fourth born,
died at the age of thirteen years.

The young couple made their home in several different places in Lawrence County.
After staying on Greasy Ridge a short time they moved to Ironton where I.G. worked
as an insurance salesman. It was during the first two years of their marriage that
Romulus was born in March of 1907 and then died seven months later in October, 1907.

I.G. and Maggie were already expecting their second child when Romulus died. In the
fall of 1907, the Hesson family moved to Getaway, Ohio in Lawrence County where
I.G. taught school. It was while living in Getaway that Paul and Willanelle were born.

They then moved back to Greasy Ridge at the end of the school year in the spring of
1910. They set up housekeeping in a house about one mile from the property now owned
by Garnet Danford Nance. I.G. and Maggie lived there for several years while I.G.
completed high school at Chesapeake, graduating in 1925. While living there three
more sons were born: Irwin Dwight, Tom, and Leo. The two older children, Paul and
Willanelle, traveled daily from Greasy Ridge to Chesapeake High School. Both graduated
from Chesapeake High in 1927. Years later the other siblings in I.G’s. family also
graduated from Chesapeake High School.

I.G. never lost his desire to learn. Even though he had taught school for many years
he never gave up the dream of going to college. As time went on he became very well
educated for that day and age. After finishing high school, I.G. received a Bachelor’s
Degree from Marshall College in Huntington, WV., and a Master’s Degree from Ohio
University.

About 1926 the I.G. Hesson family moved from Greasy Ridge to the Peterstown area of
Chesapeake, Ohio, where Maggie and I.G. lived the remainder of I.G’s life. While
living in Peterstown, their last child, Robert L. Hesson, was born. The family
story is told that I.G. and Maggie had planned to name the new baby Daniel Samuel,
if the baby was a boy. One of I.G’s classes at school was studying about
Robert E. Lee. I.G. had gone home for lunch on April 15, 1927 to find that the new
baby had arrived that morning.

They filled out an insurance policy for Daniel Samuel Hesson while I.G. was there.
Upon returning to school he told the class that a new baby had come to live at
their home. The students insisted that the baby be named Robert Lee after the
character in the lessons they were studying. To this day there is an old insurance
policy made out to Daniel Samuel Hesson in the possession of Robert Lee Hesson.
The Hesson’s first grandchild, Edwin Dwight Hesson, son of Paul Hesson and Levedah
Burchett Hesson, was born in the house in Peterstown also. The two boys, an uncle
and nephew, were born in the same house, four years apart, and played together
as children.

I.G. held the position of school principal at Rome, Proctorville, Coal Grove,
and Black Fork in Lawrence County. He taught math and business courses in many
of the Lawrence County communities, including Chesapeake. He was held in great
respect among his fellow teachers as well as the student body. In 1945 I.G. had
throat surgery that resulted in the loss of his voice. Being unable to talk,
he was forced to retire from teaching. When he retired after 43 years of teaching
he was recognized as having the longest tenure of any teacher in Ohio at that time

I.G. was a devoted family man of high integrity and a deep devotion to God. He served
as minister and elder at the Greasy Ridge Church of Christ for a number of years before
moving to Chesapeake. After moving to the Chesapeake area, I.G. became one of the
charter members in establishing the Rome, Ohio Church of Christ, where he served as
an elder. He was a faithful member of that congregation the remainder of his life and
a devoted servant of God all his life. His devotion to God was an inspiration and his
spiritual influence has been seen in the many lives he influenced. Many of his descendants
are faithful servants of God because they learned the love of God from the life of I.G.
Hesson. All of his children and their mates were/are members of the Church of Christ.

Margaret Rachel (Maggie) Dunfee Hesson was born June 30, 1882, about one mile from the
Centenary Cemetery, in Windsor Township, Lawrence County, Ohio. She was the
daughter of John A. Dunfee and Thirza Ann Hayes Dunfee. Maggie died August 7, 1965, in
Huntington, WV and was buried next to I.G. in Centenary Cemetery.

Copyright 2009 B. Clarice Hesson (29 Apr 2009)

Sources-

1. Genealogy materials about the Hesson family, compiled by Paul R. Hesson, desceased.

2. Materials gathered from interviews with two of I.G. Hesson's sons, Leo Hesson of
Hiawassee, GA. and Robert Lee Hesson of Chesapeake, Ohio.