Chester Hutchinson and the Mystery of Ira Ingerson

After my April 3rd post on Chester Hutchinson, several readers were interested in learning more about the poems written in celebration of his 80th and 85th birthdays.  Let me just say that I am not an expert on poetry.  However, I find the poems to be quite different in feeling and sentiment.

The first poem, by Ira Ingerson of Dewittville, New York in Chautauqua County, was written in honor of Chester’s 80th birthday.  It was published in the Monroe County (NY) Mail on July 28, 1921.   Here’s the mystery:  Who was Ira Ingerson, and why did he write a birthday poem for Chester Hutchinson? 

Research on Ira Ingerson began by searching newspaper archives.  Not much was found about him there.  Next, I tried Ancestry.com.  I was able to track Ira in census records from 1850 through 1930.  It appears Ira was born circa 1849 to Harry and Harriet Ingerson, and he lived the majority of his life in Chautauqua County, New York.  Ira and his wife, Elizabeth, had at least five sons together – George, Marion, Eugene, Leon and Llewellyn – who were born between 1869 and 1879. 

The mystery deepened as I found a 1910 census record showing Ira was married to a woman named Julia, and had been for three years.  It was listed as Ira’s second marriage.  However, a Find A Grave memorial for Ira’s first wife, Elizabeth, states that she died in 1926.  An Ancestry.com family tree gives Elizabeth’s death date as 1932.  Are those sources both inaccurate and Elizabeth died prior to 1907, were there two different Ira Ingersons who were the same age living in the same town, or were Ira and Elizabeth divorced?

It occurred to me that Ira may have served in the Civil War with Chester Hutchinson, but I found no documentation to verify that idea. So, however it happened and whatever Ira’s relationship was to Chester, Ira Ingerson wrote the following poem in celebration of Chester Hutchinson’s 80th birthday.  We’ll follow up with the second poem, by Franc Fassett Pugsley, in our next post.

Eighty years of life I’ve lived,

Its pleasures, peace and strife:

Its end cannot be far away,

I’ll not complain, I’ve had my day.

 

I recollect long years ago,

My cheeks were red with youthful glow:

They now are pale, my hair is gray,

I’ll not complain, I’ve had my day.

 

In youthful days around me stood

So many friends, both true and good:

They now are gone, alone I stay,

I’ll not complain, I’ve had my day.

 

Yet not alone, ‘round me arrayed

Are later friends that I have made,

Both kind and true and good are they;

I’ll not complain, I’ve had my day.

 

What others feel of joys or woes,

For my own part, I do not know.

Have I had my share?  I cannot say.

I’ll not complain, I’ve had my day.

 

But there’s another, better clime,

Where years eternal ever shine.

Hope, only hope, sends a glorious ray,

I’ll not complain, I’ve had my day.

 

I’ve had my day, I’ll not complain:

In that blest land, no sorrow, no pain:

For the Master, Himself, will gently say,

I am the life, I am the way.

Oh, the thought how it thrills me,

When life’s trials will all be o’er,

I can wait, for at the longest,

It will be only a few years more.

Explore posts in the same categories: Civil War, Civil War Soldiers, Monroe County NY, Perinton NY

Tags: 108th NY Infantry, Chautauqua, Chester Hutchinson, Dewittville NY, Elizabeth Ingerson, Eugene Ingerson, Franc Fassett Pugsley, George Ingerson, Ira Ingerson, Julia Ingerson, Leon Ingerson, Llewellyn Ingerson, Marion Ingerson

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