James Benton Irvin was born on September 4, 1874, the youngest child of the sixteen of Tillman Irvin and Lettie Webb Irvin.  

Benton and John Henry Sandlin looked quite alike and used to run around together.  They and some other local boys had a whisky still that they just ran for themselves on the Mississippi-Alabama state line.  The law from one state would chase them and they would run across the line, then the other would get after them and they'd go the other way.  When the heat got on him too much for it, Benton went to Texas once and lived with Acker Irvin.  He spent the summer out there, but then one day he got a letter from home.  It was from his mother and she had written that he ought to come back home and cut wood for them to last the winter and also to help with other things since they were getting too old to handle it themselves and the other older kids had families of their own to take care of.  Benton immediately packed up his belongings and rode his horse to the railroad station.  He sold his horse and got a ticket on the train to Memphis.  In Memphis, he bought a ticket to Gattman.  He got off the train at 1 a.m. and walked the last few miles to his home and he never left again.  He wouldn't even go to visit relatives very far.

Benton married Tezzie Thompson (whose husband, a Cash, had recently died) on August 21, 1910.  The marriage took place in the middle of the Buttahatchie River Bridge, just outside of Sulligent, Alabama.  Tezzie had a daughter from her first marriage, but it wasn't long before they had children themselves.  They had two sons and two daughters, and raised them in Monroe County.  Benton farmed for his living and Tezzie was a homemaker, though she did a lot of seamstress work for other people and made some additional money that way.

A story told about Benton is that once a man asked Benton why he was a Republican in an area that was overwhelmingly Democratic.  He said that his dad had fought in the Mexican War and he wasn't about to vote against the country that his father had fought for.  Benton was the type of man who spoke to every single person that he saw.  He often hollered out to folks as he would see them, especially when going down the road.  He didn't drive though, but instead would trust his daughter to drive, even when she was just 8 years old!  He would just sit in the passenger seat and greet folks.  

He also had his older sister-in-law come live with the family after he bought the old homeplace that belonged to his brother.  This is the Aunt Mary listed in the 1930 census below:

1930 Monroe County, Mississippi Census
Beat 3, Page 149B
Irvin, Benton Head 54 Md. at age 34 AL TN SC Farmer
Irvin, Tezzie Wife 48 Md. at age 19 AL AL AL
Irvin, Ogden Son 19 AL
Irvin, Private
Irvin, I.J. (?) Son 14 AL
Irvin, Private
Irvin, Mary Aunt 66 Widowed Md. at age 19 AL AL AL Can read and write

On Christmas Day, in 1952, at the age of 78, Benton was eating supper when he passed out and died at the table.  He was buried at the Center Hill Cemetery, where his dad was.  Tezzie lived for another seven years, but she passed away on August 4, 1959, at the age of 77.  She was also buried at Center Hill.

Ogden Oliver Irvin (md. Miriam Cornelius Egger)
    Ogden was born on May 17, 1911.  He married Miriam, who was two years his younger.  They had two children together.  He was a farmer and heavy equipment operator, but he died relatively young, at the age of 48, on November 19, 1959.  He is buried in Center Hill Cemetery in Hamilton, Monroe County.  Miriam passed away within the past year and is buried at Center Hill also.

Living Irvin (md. private)

I.J. Rigdon Irvin (md. private)
    I.J. was born on September 2, 1915.  He was a big fellow with blonde hair and fiery green eyes.  He moved up to Memphis and worked for the power company there as a line foreman.  He died rather young, at the age of 50, on November 19, 1965.  He had three children.  

Living Irvin (md. private)