52 Photos Week 17 Building
Charles Hess and his father-in law, Rufus Safford, started a lumber and coal company on the Southside of my hometown, Momence, Illinois, in 1890. The name of the business was Safford and Hess. It was one of the first lumber companies in Momence and it did fairly well. In 1893, Rufus was suffering from ill health and he had to sell the company, so he sold it to J.J. Kirby. The company became known as the J.J. Kirby Lumber, Grain and Coal Company. In 1895, Charles Hess purchased an interest in the business. In 1901 J.H. Mosely purchased J.J. Kirby's interest so the business became known as Momence Coal & Lumber Company. In 1902 James Garrett acquired Mosely's interest and the Lumber yard became known as Hess & Garrett Lumber Yard until 1913 when Mr. Garrett retired. Charles' brother John purchased Mr. Garrett's interest and the business became known as Hess Brother's Lumber, Grain and Coal Co.
In 1922, at age 18, Charles' son, Edmond went to work at the Lumber Company. In 1932, Charles' brother, John, died. So it was only Charles and his son Edmond left operating the Lumber yard.
On November 14, 1934, Charles also died. Roy Hess, another son of Charles' started working in the lumber yard with his brother. They changed the name to Hess Lumber Company and it remained that name until 1957 when they sold the business to Dixie Lumber company.
My husband and I purchased our house in 1988. It was the Baptist Parsonage which was built in 1914. We started to remodel our house, wanting to take everything that we could back to the original state.
When my husband removed the outside original siding, on the back of the wood was printed "Hess Brother's Lumber", and the name Charles Hess. This was in the early stages of my genealogy search. I was shocked to find out that Charles Hess was a relative of my husband.
I have since discovered that he is a first cousin twice removed. So when I saw the subject of the week, building, I knew my subject was going to be the Hess Brothers Lumber Company.
