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- BIO:Wilkie Payne, as he was known to friends and family all his life, was born June 27, 1889 at the family homestead up Caney Fork Branch on the side of the Dan Payne Mountain in Madison County, North Carolina.
The Dan Payne Mountain was named after his grand-father, Daniel A. Payne. He spent his early years in that locale, which was about four miles south of the French Broad River and the county seat town of Marshall in Madison County, North Carolina. His father moved the family several times, living in the Walnut area awhile, then they moved to the western part of the county and lived on Roaring Fork of Meadow Fork Creek in the area between Spring Creek and Maxes Patch Mountain. His father then purchased forty acres below Hot Springs near Shut In Creek and touching the French Broad River. Here the family farmed till his mother passed away and his father remarried. The farm was sold in 1906 and they all moved to Indiana. He related a story his mother told him about his birth and early days. A black neighbor lady who was helping with the newborn Wilkie thought he was a very pretty baby and on one occasion while bathing him she picked him up and kissed his bare bottom. Wilkies mother thought this very funny and related the tale to him when he was old enough to hear about it. Wilkie later passed the tale on to his own eldest son, John Robert Payne, who shared it with the writer. Wilkie's father was a small farmer for a while then ran a grocery store and run a peddlers route in the rural area near their home. Wilkie and his brothers and sisters told members of the younger generation that their Grandmother was one quarter Indian. This would make him and his brothers and sisters one sixteenth Indian. It is believed that this woman was from the Henderson side of the family as Wilkies sisters told how their mother, Amanda Ameretta Henderson, would pull her hair back in a special manner and tell them that was the manner her Indian ancestor wore it. Also a cousin, Isabell Payne Czuba, said she wished she was part Indian like Joel Paynes children. She said the Indian blood was from the Henderson side of the family. Another unknown is what tribe the Indian blood came from. Since the
Cherokee Nation lies just to the South of where the Paynes lived some assumed it was Cherokee but others said Wilkie had stated the Indian ancestor came down to N.C. thru the Cumberland Gap and was a Blackfoot Indian. This is logical as the Blackfoot Indians traveled a lot. Wilkie was born and spent his early years in a log cabin in the hills of Madison County. He slept in the loft and said many winter mornings he awoke with snow on his bedclothes. He was sickly most of his early life and nearly died from pneumonia once. His mother knew the plants
of the fields and forest and he went with her at times to gather them for use as medicine. His mother passed away from "consumption" as it was known then but now known as Tuberculosis. She lies in a little cemetery "below" or west of Hot Springs, N.C.
Corn and tobacco were the main crops on their mountain farm and it was worked by hand. Although Wilkie never used tobacco or drank strong liquor during his entire life he once "tried" some tobacco, he said. It was just after a good harvest and his father and a neighbor man were standing by the tobacco barn discussing the crop and saying how sweet the tobacco was that year. The way they talked about it made Wilkie think it must really be sometime good to eat. So, he tried it. He said the more he chewed, trying to get the sweetness out, the worst it tasted to him. He then begin to feel sick and, not wanting to be made fun of by his father and neighbor, he ran around behind the barn to get rid of the contents of his stomach. He had been swallowing the juice of the chewed tobacco, not knowing this was not to be done, and of course became very ill. He said he thought at first he was going to die, then was afraid he wouldn't. After he had composed himself he returned to his father and told him the tobacco didn't taste very good to him and his father and neighbor had a good laugh at his expense. He asked why his father didn't stop him. His father told him that he knew Wilkie would try tobacco sometime and he figured this was as good a
time as any to let him try it. Wilkie told his father that was the first and last time he would use the vile "stuff".
Wilkie had to help with the farm work as well as do many different chores around the house such as building fires in the fireplaces each morning in the winter, including a fire in the kitchen fire place before his parents rose from bed. Later in his young life he lived in Hot Springs, North Carolina. He stayed with two older ladies and helped at their boarding house in return for room and board and the chance to attend the Presbyterian School and Church of Hot Springs. His experience there stayed with him the rest of his life. He was known to the two ladies as "Leetle Weelkie" He became a Christian while in their care and helped many during his lifetime to find Christ and he also encouraged many to a better and more noble life thru Christian service and education. He worked at one time when he was about sixteen years old in a coal mine. One day it rained so hard it flooded the mine so they went home
early. On the way home he came across a woman and her children stranded on the other side of a raging stream. He helped rescue them before the water come up to their house.
Around 1906 his father moved the family to Indiana. The trip was made by train. The family had what little money they possessed in cash. This money was hidden in the shoes of the smallest child, Armstrong
Payne, as there was fear of being robbed during the trip. The train let them off at the little country village of Forest, Indiana. From there they had to walk and carry their luggage about a mile and a half East to the home of the eldest son, Herbert Payne, Wilkies oldest brother, with whom they stayed for the time being. Wilkie and his father earned a living for the next two years clearing woods for farmers north of Forest, Indiana. It was during this work he received an injury that was to plague him most of his adult life. He was ruptured while lifting heavy logs. A Doctor many years later preformed an operation on him that closed the ruptured muscles and gave him a more normal life free of wearing a truss. He was a remarkable man as he worked as hard as any man around him and never gave way to his injured body. One neighbor lady, Addie Chambers, after observing him work in the hay fields and threshing rings of those days was so impressed that he could do so much work even though he was a
small man, called him a "Little Pine Knot".
Wilkie attended Taylor University for a special course in education to round out the knowledge he had gained at the schools in N.C. He paid for this special schooling by working on the campus; mostly pouring new cement sidewalks. He said this course gave him the basic eighth grade level of education, although in some respects he was far ahead of that level. He was always able to figure quickly and accurately in his head. He also had read the Bible thru several times and could help someone else who would be reading it aloud with words they didn't know
by saying the word for them. He could do this from across the room where he could not see the bible.
Wilkie worked as a hired hand for farmers around Forest, Indiana till he met and married Effie Johnson. He then ran his mother-in-laws farm till after her death then moved to a farm owned by Clark Van Aukin. He
farmed there till 1929. He purchased a one hundred acre farm in Honey Creek Township of
Howard County, Indiana. This farm was located just a mile north of the Van Aukin place but across the county line that divides Clinton and Howard Counties and in Section 34 of Township 23 North in Range 2 East. The farm starts at the Northeast corner of the Northwest Quarter of Section 34 and runs west halfway to the west side of section 34 then south past the center line of that section far enough to make up 100 acres of ground. He paid $6500 for this land. Some years later he purchased an additional 10 acres or so from Ollie Greer and shortly thereafter he purchased a couple more acres north of his 100 and next to the Greer purchase from William Shackleford.
In 1873 James Thompson and Sons operated a tile factory on the North- West corner of this farm. They had a driven well, extensive Kiln and necessary machinery for a large operation. The first structure burned but was rebuilt larger than the first. The factory was owned by W.R. Hodson in 1883. Considerable clay was excavated from the north side of the farm to furnish material for tile and the low places can still be seen to this day, 1995, where the clay pits were worked. Also bits and pieces of tile and brick can still be found where the factory once
stood. Wilkie resided on this farm till his death in 1964. However previous to purchasing the Honey Creek farm Wilkie had purchased an eighty acre farm east of Noblesville, Indiana. Its location is as follows: The west half of the southeast quarter of section seven (7) township eithteen (18) north range six (6) east in Hamilton County,
Indiana. Purchase price was $6525.00. This purchase was made January 5, 1927. After his wife Effie had seen the farm and the small, rundown buildings thereon, she refused to move there. Wilkie kept that farm a few years letting his brother-in-law Charles Evans farm it. He sold that farm January 2, 1931 to Clarence and Florence
Mushrush for One dollar and subject to taxes due in 1931 and they assumed the mortgage of $4100. He lost considerable money during the few years he owned this farm but the Great Depression was upon him and
he had to conserve his resources any way possible. Wilkie was quick to try new ways to bring in needed cash. He took his dairy products and, with the family helping, made butter, cottage cheese, and fresh buttermilk. Along with eggs from the family hen house, the dairy products, and dressed chickens prepared by his wife Effie, Wilkie set out each Friday and Saturday during the early years of the depression to sell in Russiaville and Forest these products of his farm. He made ready cash for the family needs in this way and his products were much appreciated by the towns folk. His three sons all helped on the route going with him from time to time and sons John or
James, and also his wife Effie would run the route when Wilkie was busy with farm work. William was too small to go by himself but helped the others and he remembers fondly the many nice people he met and learned how much the customers thought of Wilkie. People took Wilkie at his word as he was a man who could be trusted and "His word was his Bond".
Wilkie was a true man of the soil and enjoyed his farm. He was very good at raising hogs and the sale of fattened hogs was the main source of farm income. He also had dairy cattle, some beef cattle, a flock of sheep, turkeys, guineas, rabbits, a goat, chickens, and a couple of peacocks. The family butchered their own hogs and preserved the
meat for year round use. The hog fat was rendered for lard to use in cooking and soap making. Generally one beef was butchered per year and most of that meat was canned for later use as no other means of preserving was available. Electricity was not run to the farm till the mid 1930s when the Federal Government made power available to farmers. Even then it was only used for lights. It was a few years before electric appliances were able to be purchased. The first one was an electric motor to run a pump jack to pump water for the livestock. Five years after getting electricity Wilkie and Effie remodeled their farm house and put a basement under it plus an
addition to the south side. Then Effie was able to have running water in the house and the other household appliances later considered standard equipment for a home.
Wilkie installed an electric milker for his dairy herd which took the drudgery out of the time consuming task of milking several cows.
Wilkie was one of the first farmers in the Russiaville-Forest area to raise field tomatoes for sale to local canneries as well as shipping them to Campbells Soup Company in Chicago during the depression. This provided an additional cash crop during those difficult depression years. It also provided work for many local people who helped tend
and harvest the crop during the late summer and early fall period.
Wilkie was always quick to hire people needing money as he remembered the hard time he had getting started and the many years he had barely enough to eat and wear. His wife often teased him about "making work" for school boys who came out to the farm to earn money for a week end date. The men these boys became remember him greatfully and also the huge meals Effie dished up to them while they were working on the farm.
Wilkie and Effie lived on the Howard County farm from 1929 till his death in 1964. Effie purchased and moved into a home in Russiaville after Wilkies death and rented the farm to her son James Payne who farmed the place till her death in 1966. James Payne then purchased the farm from the other heirs except for some nine acres that was
purchased by Rosemary (Payne) Carter for her son Dan Carter. Rosemary also purchased the house in Russiaville from her mothers estate and moved into it to spend the rest of her life, commenting that she felt very near her mother when she was at home in this cozy little house.
Wilkie Payne was a much loved and honored man in his family and community. He was always ready and willing to help anyone in need. His devotion to God and family was without equal. He was quiet and willing in service and mighty in prayer. The world is truely a better place for his having passed this way.
Revised. Feb. 1996
All children of John Leonard Wilkison Payne were living at the time this book was being prepared:
All information was common family knowledge at that time.
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