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