Ammon Payne

Ammon Payne Ammon Payne was the son of Hiram Payne, who moved his family to Arkansas from Tennessee well before the Civil War and settled on Mountain Fork Creek near Natural Dam where he spent the rest of his life and is believed to have been buried in a local cemetery when he died at the age of 116 years. We do .not know if Hiram Payne had other children. Ammon Payne married Mary Jane Shannon and they lived on a farm, later to be known as the Rob Kidd farm, three miles south of Lincoln in Washington County. The house was on a knoll above a fertile, well watered valley. They were slave owners and prospered until the Civil War. Eight children were born to them: Tom, who married an Indian girl whose first name was Georgia and last name unknown; Bob, who never married; Will who married Elizabeth Colburn; Kate, who married Wilson Smith; Mary, who married George Scott; James, who married Mary Catherine Dobbs; Mattie, who married Taylor Howard; and Jemima, who married Charles Hase. The children of Tom Payne were Dock and Charlie. From this branch of the family later came Andy Payne who was nationally known as the famous coast to coast Bunion Derby winner (footraces similar to modern marathons). Later he was the Treasurer of the State of Oklahoma for many years. Will and Elizabeth had one girl who died young. Will died fairly young but Elizabeth "Aunt Lizzie" died at Siloam Springs at an age of over one hundred years. Mattie and Taylor Howard had one son, Luther (Lute), who lives in the Morrow area and operated sawmills and grain threshing machines. He married Etta Edmiston and their children were Edgar, Edna, twins Lawrence and Leonard, and Ethel. Jemima and Charles Hase had five children: Tom and Lon, neither of which married; Hattie who married a Gibson; Ammon who died young; and Annie, who married a Dodson. Mary and George Scott (who will be mentioned later) had children: Will, Chrissie, who married Tom Lefors; Henry, who married a girl whose last name was Tigret; Tom, who never married; and Newt, who married an Allen. James and Mary Payne's children were: Minnie, who married Wilson Moore and had a daughter, Iva, who married Hilary Gibson (who along with Fred Summers were prominent business men in Summers and Lincoln) and their children were Ruth and Genevieve; Elsie, who married Fred Summers and had children Jack and Eva Jane; lone, who married Chester Nichols; and Murray, wife unknown. Etta, who married Billy Padgett; had children Kate and Dee; Ora, died at 16 and was buried at Fletcher, Oklahoma; Annie married Bill Gibson and had one son, Fred. William Cody (W. C.) Payne married Minnie Roller and they had sons Clyde and Elmer. After Minnie died he married Ruth Holt Green with whom he lived until his death at age 93; Clyde married Corene Swift and had children Howard, Geneva and Richard. James' other daughter, Della, married Jim Walker. After he died she married Marion Spear, and their three sons were Alva, Lester and Troy. James' widow was living with the Spear family on April 4, 1928 when a tornado struck and killed her along with Marion Spear and his son Troy Spear. Alva Spear grew up to become one of the pioneer farmer's cooperative managers in the area. James' son, Emmett, married Kate Little and their children were Mary, Harold and Mildred. Ammon Payne was a member of the Home Guard of Southern Sympathizers during the Civil War and was killed by hanging in Bush Valley along with four other local men in what was supposed to be a Pin Indian Raid. It seems to have been the general opinion that it was done by bushwhackers made up as Indians. Bushwhackers were outlaws who took advantage of the absence of most men during the war. James Payne was eight years old when he drove a wagon under his father's body to cut it down and haul it home. Ammon was buried in Bethesda Cemetery by his widow and other women. At the time of the attack, Ammon was riding along with George Scott, who was mounted on a very fast horse. Ammon urged him to ride on ahead and escape. The fast horse saved Scott's life and he later returned to marry Payne's daughter, Mary. James Payne told later about how he and neighbor boys would dash into the camp of Northern soldiers to kick over their cooking pots and then flee. The soldiers would not shoot them because they were children, but they really cursed them. By: Ruth Holt Payne