A Will, a War, and a Railroad

Written for the 2023 Great Payne Reunion in Lone Mountain

It could be that we Paynes can thank Benjamin Sewell for Anderson Payne coming to Tennessee. We can definitely thank the Knoxville, Cumberland Gap, and Louisville Railroad for bringing him to Lone Mountain. And, sadly enough, it may also have taken a Civil War to put all the pieces in place.

Benjamin Sewell

Benjamin Houston Sewell was a prominent merchant and landowner in the early days of Tazewell. He soon became a money lender as well. At that time in Tazewell, even after it became the County Seat of Claiborne County in 1804, it was still a frontier in most respects. There were no banks or chartered lending institutions; so, those who needed loans had to depend on private sources like Sewell.

Sewell had been buying Claiborne County land since his arrival to the area. As time passed he also began to acquire land as repayment for some of the loans he had made. Three of these parcels were near Springdale – a 100-acre parcel, and two 50-acre parcels in close proximity to each other. Before Sewell died in 1848, he wrote a will leaving his Springdale lots to one of his daughters, Betsey Sewell Burdine, who lived about 120 miles away in Russell County, Virginia. He also left $200 each (a big sum in those days) to Betsey’s sons, John Tivis and Samuel Patton Burdine.

The Burdine Brothers and the War

Within the next few years, Betsey gave John and Samuel her Springdale land, and they both came well-prepared to. They were soon among the most affluent establish successful farms on their neighboring lands. John married Catharine DeVault, the daughter of the wealthiest man in Springdale. They had two daughters, Eliza and Louisa before Catharine died in 1861 at the age of 30. Samuel married a stately brunette, Elizabeth Day, daughter of John Ransom Day and his widow, Nancy Hurst. Sam and Elizabeth had two daughters as well, Martha Jane and Ellon.

There seemed little doubt that a war was coming. The people in East Tennessee were very divided on the issues that led to the Civil War, with a large majority of them loyal to the Union. The western part of the state was very pro-slavery, however, and ultimately Tennessee became the last state to join the Confederacy. In late 1863, to avoid being conscripted into the Confederate Army, both John and Samuel traveled to Knoxville and joined the Tennessee 9th Calvary of the Union Army. Just after mustering in, Samuel developed a serious case of dysentery. He was finally transferred to a Union hospital in Nashville where he died of dehydration in early 1864. John picked up his brother’s effects and returned them to Elizabeth.

John’s unit saw action in many skirmishes around East Tennessee, and, occasionally, he had the opportunity to stop by Springdale and check on his farm. On one such visit, he was reported by some of his confederate-sympathizing neighbors to Confederate Officers stationed near Tazewell. They captured John and hanged him as a Union spy. Furious with her neighbors for reporting her brother-in-law, and fearful for her own safety, Elizabeth took her girls, Martha Jane and Ellon, to Virginia to stay with her Burdine in-laws in Russell County.

Hiram and Polly Payne and the War

Around the same time the Burdine Brothers were establishing their farms and families in Springdale, Hiram and Polly Payne of Scott County Virginia, joined her parents and many other families – Roller, Bloomer, Jennings and more – and went to Christian County, Missouri. Many intended to stay, and many were just hoping (in vain) to avoid the upcoming war.

At the time they left for Missouri, Hiram and Polly had six sons. The oldest of them was nine-year-old Anderson. Their only daughter had died a few years prior, but in Missouri they had two more daughters, Sarah in 1860 and Mary Ann in 1862. In 1863, after receiving word that Hiram’s father, Enoch Payne, had died. Hiram wished to claim his inheritance and help settle Enoch’s estate; so, the Payne family began their return trip to Scott County by covered wagon. Anderson was then fifteen. On the trail back home to Scott County, Anderson’s mother, Polly, drowned during a river crossing.

Two years later, as the Civil War was ending, many thieves and marauders were roaming the ravaged lands of the south. Discovering that some of his horses had been stolen, Hiram took seventeen-year-old Anderson, and a nephew down along the North Fork of the Clinch River in hopes of recovering his horses. They tracked them as far as Blackwater, Virginia, where the thieves were lying in wait. They ambushed the three men, shooting Hiram dead and wounding young Anderson in the knee, crippling him for life.

After the War

With their father dead and their oldest brother wounded, the younger Payne children were taken into the homes of various aunts and uncles. As it happened, there was a couple in neighboring Russell County who had lost their only two sons in the war and needed a farmhand. They took in sixteen-year-old Enoch Payne. That couple was Henry and Betsy Sewell Burdine, and the two sons they lost (their only children) were John and Samuel Burdine.

Still living with the Burdines at that time was their daughter-in-law Elizabeth, and their three granddaughters: Martha Jane, Ellon, and Eliza. Martha Jane and Ellon, of course, were Samuel’s. Eliza was John’s. John’s younger daughter, Louisa had died while quite young.

With his brother, Enoch, residing with the Burdines, Anderson Payne had the occasion to meet the widow, Elizabeth. She was ten years his elder, but they were married within a year. It may have been a marriage of convenience, but I choose to believe it was for love. It would prove to be an enduring marriage. And fruitful. Their first two children together, Mollie and Maggie Payne, were born in Russell County. By the time the 1870 census was taken, however, Anderson and Elizabeth, whom he called “Betty,” were in Springdale living on the farm where Elizabeth had lived with Samuel. Anderson ‘s younger brother, James. lived with them and worked the farm, while Anderson ran a dry goods and hack rental business from a lean-to attached to the house. Also in Anderson’s household was his nine-year-old sister, Sarah. Elizabeth’s mother and nephew, Nancy Hurst and Ransom L. Day, lived with them too.

Everything was growing – Anderson’s business as well as his family. Over the next nine years six more Payne children were born: Henry, Eliza, Laura. Then came the twins Robert and LaFayette, and, finally, my own grandfather, Byrd.

The Railroad

Claiborne County was growing as well. In the late 1880s, the Knoxville, Cumberland Gap, and Louisville Railroad laid track across Tennessee from Middlesboro to Knoxville. It went straight through the small village of Lone Mountain, about five miles away from Springdale. The railroad invigorated the economy of Lone Mountain, and provided passenger service from the Lone Mountain Depot into Knoxville, Middlesboro, and the Tazewells.

Anderson wasted no time moving his business and his family to Lone Mountain. He was hired to the plum position of Depot Agent, allowing him to pass his business to his sons as they came of age. Finally, he could give his crippled leg a rest.

The Lone Mountain Paynes

So, Benjamin Sewell’s will, the tragic Civil War, the coming of the railroad – all three played crucial roles in bringing the Paynes to Lone Mountain. For the next sixty years Anderson and Elizabeth’s children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren took leading roles in shaping and growing Lone Mountain. Not to mention Tazewell and New Tazewell. Some are still living there but, eventually, most left.

But the thing about us Lone Mountain Paynes: we come back. One hundred-fifty years and seven generations out from Anderson and Elizabeth’s arrival in Lone Mountain, a large number of us still come back.

On the cusp of generation eight, that does not seem likely to change any time soon!