Genesee-Livingston-Washtenaw County MI Archives Biographies.....Payne, William 1817 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 19, 2006, 10:13 pm

Author: Chapman Bros. (1892)

WILLIAM PAYNE. Our subject was born in Leicestershire, England, March 14, 1817,
and is a son of John and Mary (Ossin) Payne, natives of the same shire. The
former was a tailor in his younger days and during his later years was
proprietor of an hotel. They are both deceased at the present time and he of
whom we write is the only survivor of five children with the exception of one
sister. He has never had a relative on this side of the Atlantic except two
nieces who spent three months in visiting here.

  Our subject received a good common-school education, remaining with his
parents until seventeen years of age when he determined to come to the New World
and taste the sweets of possession for himself. He set sail in the spring of
1833 and was several weeks in making the trip, but finally landed at New York.
He came direct to Michigan via the Erie Canal and Lakes to Detroit and first
located five miles west of Ann Arbor, where he made his home for some time.

  Young Payne had but $5 on landing in Ann Arbor. He first worked out on farms
until 1836, when he took up eighty acres of Government land on section 35,
Deerfield Township, Livingston County, and received a deed signed by President
Van Buren. In the fall of 1836 our subject returned to his home in England,
having accomplished his object of securing a farm in the new country. He spent
two and a half years in the mother country, and was engaged as shipping clerk
for a firm of Waters & Whitmore. In 1830 [sic] he returned to America and the
following year settled on his land, building a log house with a stick chimney
and employing slabs for seats.

  In the spring of 1840 our subject was married to Miss Sarah M. Roberts, of
Chemung County, N. Y. Indians and wild game were plentiful at the time of their
first settlement, but the work of clearing and improving the farm left not a
great deal of time for hunting. Our subject has added to his original purchase
until he now owns seven lots of eighty acres each. He has cleared and improved a
good many acres of land. He farmed until 1880 when he retired from active
business and moved to Fenton where he has since lived. Here our subject has a
fine home and is pleasantly situated in every respect. Mr. Payne's first wife
died about 1883, she was the mother of two children and an excellent matron, who
in her church relations was a Baptist. Our subject's eldest son, John L., is
married and lives on the old homestead in Deerfield Township; William H., is
married and lives in Bancroft. He is at present interested in the hardware
business and is moreover a dealer in produce. Our subject was re-married in
1885, his bride being Mary J. Davis, a native of New York State.

  Mr. Payne is a Republican in politics and has held various local offices. He
has been Township Assessor. Both he and his wife are members of the Baptist
Church, our subject having been so connected for thirty years. As a farmer Mr.
Payne has been very successful and is the owner of one of the best farms in the
State. His buildings and other improvements upon his place are of the latest and
most perfect designs. Like most men, he has a private fad outside of his
business, being greatly interested in taxidermy, having taken up the art when
but thirteen years of age. He has done a great deal in this direction for his
own pleasure and amusement and many of his friends have been enriched by his
taste in this direction by a case of fine birds. He himself owns several cases
of the finest specimens, and has birds from nearly every clime and country in
the world.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Portrait and Biographical Record of Genesee, Lapeer and Tuscola Counties, Michigan,
Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens,
Together with Biographies of all the Governors of the State, and of the 
Presidents of the United States

Chicago:
Chapman Bros.
1892

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