Tennessee
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