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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


Page 195

         WILLIAM PAYNE.  Our subject was born in Leicestershire,
      England, March 14, 1817, and is the 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
      
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 Page 196
 
      deceased at the present time and he of whom we write is the
      only survivor of five children with the exception of one sis-
      ter.  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, re-
      maining 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, Living-
      ston 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 & Whit-
      more.  In 1839 he returned to America and the following year
      settled on his land, building a log house with a stick chim-
      ney 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 Town-
      ship; WILLIAM H., is married and lives in Bancroft.  He is
      at present interested in the hardware business and is more-
      over 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 sub-
      ject having been so connected for thirty years.  As a far-
      mer 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 per-
      fect 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.

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