I.J.P. Tessier

Israel J.P. Tessier was born in 1848 in Ontario, Canada. As a young man he moved to Ohio, where he learned the printer’s trade. He was an apprentice to a printer in Toledo for several years. While in Toledo, in 1867, he married Margaret Quigley. Eventually Mr. and Mrs. Tessier moved to Sandusky,  where he became foreman of the job department of the Sandusky Register. 

In 1885, I.J.P. Tessier was the president of the “Register Monumental Association.” The Association arranged the acquisition of a lot at Oakland Cemetery for graves for former employees of the Register. The buyers of the lot were I.F. Mack, John T. Mack, and C.C. Keech.

Sandusky Register Monument, Lot 87, Oakland Cemetery

In 1900, Mr. Tessier was elected to the position of Erie County Recorder, a position he held at the time of his death on April 13, 1905. He left behind a wife, four daughters and two sons. He was buried at Oakland Cemetery.

William Booth gave an oration at the funeral; it was published in the April 22, 1905 issue of the Sandusky Register. It read in part, 

“He was one of God’s noblest works – an honest man. Every day some man’s burden was made a little lighter by a kindly deed or an encouraging word. He loved to pluck the flowers of happiness that grew along life’s rugged pathway that others might catch and enjoy their beauty and fragrance. His words of cheer and commendation were not kept until the one for whom they were intended had passed away….”