Category: Payne Family

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Sorting Saturday: Edward B. Payne’s Gold Watch

Rev. Edward B. Payne, c1888- likely from when he was pastor at First Congregational (Unitarian) Church, Leominster, Massachusetts. (Click to enlarge.)

McMurray Family (Click for Family Tree)

A recent wonderful trip that we are affectionately calling the ‘Our Family’ World Tour: Past, Present, and Future took us 2600 miles in 16 days.

The “Past” portion of the trip included memories, photos, and artifacts shared, cemeteries visited, and walking the land of our ancestors.

The “Present” included an 80th birthday party and delightful visits with family members both young and young-at-heart. We even met cousins that we had corresponded with for over ten years, but had never gotten to hug them in person, until this trip!

The “Future” aspect of the trip was fulfilled by the lovely wedding of two very dear people. Welcoming a new person to the family, the promise of young love, and maybe eventually the addition of another generation to our line, are all so sweet.

It was a dream trip for anyone who loves family, and especially for one who loves genealogy too!

Sorting out information, scans, and family treasures shared on the trip may take a while, but as Edward Biron Payne might well say, it is joyful work.

As the trip progressed, sorting families, events, and stories in one’s mind and on the computer became a regular task. The trip reinforced how important it is to sort genealogy files and label in a useful manner, or have a system that makes them easy to find quickly.

Two years ago, a newspaper article was found describing the Christmas Day presentation of a pocket watch as a farewell gift to Rev. Edward Biron Payne by church members when he left his Leominster, Massachusetts pastorate at First Congregational (Unitarian) Church, before his second move to Berkeley, California:

Edward B. Payne farewell to his Leominster MA congregation on 25 December 1891, published in the Fitchburg Sentinel (Massachusetts), 28 Dec 1891, page 6, column 3. (Click to enlarge.)

The “Mrs. Payne” in the article is Edward’s first wife, Nanie Maria (Burnell) Payne, and they were both 44 years old; their daughter Lynette was 12 years of age. Nanie had gone blind in her early twenties, and descendants think that she may have had diabetes. The Payne family took the train to California and settled again in Berkeley. Tragically, Nanie later went insane and had to be committed- that could be a result of kidney failure brought on by diabetes. She died in 1898, in the institution.

The rest of the newspaper article is hard to read as the ink has faded, so it is transcribed here:

“Mr. Payne quickly recovered from the surprise and controlled his feelings, then replied in most eloquent language, thanking the hundreds of friends that there gathered around him in words they will long treasure. The watch is of the best quality of gold and the works are said to be among the finest sold in the country. There was a sadness prevailing the closing hours of this gathering, as the people felt this is the last Christmas we shall see the pastor we so much love and honor.”

It had been feared among some family that the watch had been lost in the Great Berkeley Fire of 1923, when the house of Edward and his second wife, Ninetta (Wiley) [Eames] Payne, burned to the ground. In that 17 September 1923 fire,  600 Berkeley homes were destroyed, including that of the Payne’s, turning their library and many (most?) of their belongings to ash. It also is unknown what Ninetta kept after Edward’s death, and what happened to her things when she passed away in 1944, so this part of the family did not have much hope of ever seeing the watch.

One of the great joys found on this trip, however, was information about this gold pocket watch. It was wonderfully surprising to learn that the watch had been passed down in the family! We do hope to be able to share some pictures of the watch in an upcoming post.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Photo from family treasure chest.
  2. The church in Leominster has gone through a number of iterations, and from First Congregational (Unitarian) Church to its current name, First Church Leominster, a Unitarian-Universalist Church. See https://firstchurchuu.org
  3. Fitchburg Sentinel (Massachusetts), 28 Dec 1891, page 6, column 3.
  4. Here is actual video of the Berkeley Fire of 1923, both during the fire and the aftermath: https://archive.org/details/Berkeley1923

 

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We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.

Original content copyright 2013-2018 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly, i.e, reference this blog.
 Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.

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Treasure Chest Thursday: E. B. Payne on Religion

E. B. Payne, quoted in the Lamoille News, 27 October 1880, Hyde Park, Vermont, Vol. 4, No. 29, Whole No. 185, Page 2, Column 3, via Chronicling America, Library of Congress.

McMurray Family, Payne Family (Click for Family Tree)

Were these words a part of sermons, written in a newsletter for church members, or published in a magazine? We do not know, and do not even know for sure if these words are those of our Edward Biron Payne. It is highly likely they are his words though, because:

  • He used the initials E. B. frequently,
  • Lamoille, Vermont was only about 200 miles from Springfield, Massachusetts, where E. B. was living around 1880, and
  • Newspapers would pick up snippets from other papers to fill their pages and sell copies in other cities.

More than anything else, as one who has studied Edward Biron Payne for many, many years, the words sound like his writing- they have the style seen in other published works, and echo much of his thinking that was refined in later years but still had the same basic premises. He was about 33 when this was published.

It seems that the two paragraphs may have been from different sermons or articles. Perhaps they were notes taken by a person who attended one of his sermons, and then shared with the newspaper. Alternatively, Rev. Payne may have submitted them himself. He was new to the area and may have already had an understanding of how to promote himself and his work, and gather a flock for his teaching.

“In the path of duty, you may rationally hope for permanent happiness.”

Edward Biron Payne believed that through work, one would fill their soul and find happiness. He was a Christian Socialist, but believed that we should not just take from the rich and hand to the poor- he felt that those who were blessed with riches should share their wealth, but it should be used to help the poor pull themselves up to eventually be self-sufficient. His founding of the short-lived Utopian-based Altruria Colony outside Santa Rosa, California, in the 1890s, put his beliefs of hard work and economic equality to the test.

“A man is to be pitied who is insensible to the beauties and ministrations of nature, to the teachings of literature, to the inspiration and charm of art. But the love of God is more to be considered than all these things, while, in a sense, it embraces them all, and carries with it an added richness in the appreciation of life’s deepest meanings, its joys and its sorrows.”

Rev. Payne wrote prose and poetry, and read probably about anything he could get, from practical farming to great and classic literature. He approached many topics in life from a ‘scientific,’ or very analytical and logical, point of view. (Consider the context, i.e. what science was like from his birth in 1847 until his death in 1923- the advances were considerable, and since then have been exponential.) We do not know for sure that E. B. was an art lover, but most likely he was, as he travelled in circles that included artists and critics, plus he may have helped choose illustrations for The Overland Monthly magazine, of which he was an editor for a number of years. His over-arching, deep faith made him see that while the love of God was more important than such worldly things, that love for God actually included all those beauties, and made them even richer with that understanding.

Sadly, the home of Edward and Ninetta (Wiley) [Eames] Payne was lost in the Great Berkeley Fire of 1923. His collection of manuscripts and other writings, as well as their books, became ash in the conflagration. We only have those items that were published, such as these, and some letters, to remember his beautiful words.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. “Religious,” Lamoille News, 27 October 1880, Hyde Park, Vermont, Vol. 4, No. 29, Whole No. 185, Page 2, Column 3, via Chronicling America, Library of Congress.
  2. Edward B. Payne died soon after the fire- some say from a broken heart, although he had experienced some ill health, and was 76 years old. Ninetta was later, after his death, able to find a single manuscript copy of The Soul of Jack London that he had sent to a friend for review. This is the only book of his that has been published, but we do not know which are his words, and which are Ninetta’s. (She did write the introduction, but we do not know if she completed or edited the book prior to publication.) The book claims to be a communication with the late Jack London, to whom he was very close. At the time of the writing, Edward had just begun to think of spiritualism as a possibility, a slight opening of the door to the next world. That, however, is another story…

 

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We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.

Original content copyright 2013-2018 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly, i.e, reference this blog.
 Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.

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Wishful Wednesday: A Conversation with Edward Biron Payne

Rev. Edward B. Payne preaching at a Unitarian Church in Brattleboro, Vermont, from the 11 Feb 1881 issue of the Vermont Phoenix, Brattleboro, Vermont, Vol. 48, No. 6, Page 2, Column 8, via Chronicling America, Library of Congress.

McMurray Family (Click for Family Tree)

On this anniversary of the “natal” day of Edward B. Payne (AKA “birthday”) it is only fitting to post this lovely compliment and bit of history.

“Rev. E. B. Payne of Springfield, Mass, formerly a Congregational minister, will occupy the pulpit of the Unitarian church next Sunday. Mr. Payne is a young man recently from California, although a native of Vermont, and a brilliant preacher.”

“…a brilliant preacher“- there are those of us who so wish that we could have heard his “brilliant” sermons, or sat at the dinner table with him, or lounged under the trees at Wake-Robin Lodge discussing economics, social movements, literature, and his beliefs and experiences in life. He knew the politicians, religious leaders, movers and shakers, artists and writers of the times, especially when he lived in Berkeley, or at Wake-Robin Lodge with Jack and Charmian (Kittredge) London, or Altruria, the Utopian colony he founded, or Camp Reverie, the adult summer camp in the woods that he and Ninetta (Wiley) [Eames] Payne ran. All these fascinating persons would have been around the table or out on the porch with him in the evening, and the topics would have been very intellectual and far-ranging. Edward B. Payne was a prodigious reader, remarkable author, and profound thinker- and he must have been a fascinating conversationalist.

Edward Biron Payne was born in Middletown, Vermont, on 25 July 1847, so was not yet 34 when the above was written about him.

Edward B. Payne, circa 1874. Image courtesy of Second Congregational Church, Wakeman, Ohio.
Edward B. Payne, circa 1874, about 7 years before the above newspaper article was written. Image courtesy of Second Congregational Church, Wakeman, Ohio.

After service in the Civil War, graduation from Oberlin College with his degree in theology, and ordination in 1874 as a Congregational minister, E.B. went to Berkeley, California for a time. While there, he felt a need to reexamine the faith he inherited from his father and other ancestors, and Rev. Payne converted to the Unitarian Church.

E. B. then returned to New England in 1880 to visit his parents (Joseph Hitchcock Payne and Nancy S. (Deming) Payne), per some accounts, and decided to stay. His wife, Nanie M. (Burnell) Payne, had gone blind soon after their marriage, and their daughter Lynette Payne (later McMurray) had been born 26 October 1879. The couple would have wanted their family to meet their beautiful babe and likely needed some help at home (Lynette had been born very premature), which was not always affordable on a young minister’s salary.

In addition, it is likely that E. B. may have felt the need to make a clean break with the Congregational church in California. He had been the first pastor at Berkeley Congregational/ First Congregational Church, and it must have been hard to explain to church members why he had changed faiths. He surely wanted a fresh start with his new understanding of religion, so moving to another place, especially a place where there would have been more interaction with ministers of the Unitarian faith, would have been beneficial in coalescing his ideas about God and our world.

Rev. Payne was called to serve as pastor at Unitarian churches in Springfield, Massachusetts; Manchester, New Hampshire; and Leominster, Massachusetts. He “exchanged pulpits” periodically with ministers in other cities, to give his flock as well as himself some variety in his preaching.

Edward B. Payne, of Springfield, Massachusetts, exchanged pulpits with Rev. Mr. Green of Brattleboro, Vermont, from the Wyndham County Reformer, Brattleboro, Vermont, Vol. 5, No. 27, Page 2, Column 9, via Chronicling America, Library of Congress.

Finding new pieces of information about Edward B. Payne such as these helps us to feel a bit of our “Wishful Wednesday” has been granted, though it can never replace what would have been a mesmerizing conversation with this brilliant man.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. The day of one’s birth was called a “natal day” back when he was born on 25 July 1847 and the term was also used for many years. In 1893, the Morning Call (San Francisco, California), Thursday, 27 July 1893, Volume LXXIV (74), No. 57, Page 3, Column 2, ‘Chronicling America’ via loc.gov, reported a surprise party “in honor of the anniversary his natal day.” See Mystery Monday: The Birth of Edward B. Payne at heritageramblings.net/2016/07/25/mystery-monday-the-birth-of-edward-b-payne
  2. Interestingly, E. B.’s parents were enumerated on the Federal Census on 29 June 1880 in Waukegan, Lake County, Illinois, living with their other child, Cornelia Mary (Payne) Hinckley, her husband Horace A. Hinckley, and the Payne’s first grandchild, William H. Hinckley, age 11. Nanie’s parents were living in Illinois at that time as well, although a different county, so maybe E. B. and Nanie had gone to New England to visit E. B.’s parents, and then decided they had better opportunities in the Northeast than in the young California town of Berkeley. Of course, the family did move back to Berkeley in 1892, about 12 years after ministering to souls in New England, but that’s another story.

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We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.

Original content copyright 2013-2018 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly, i.e, reference this blog.
 Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.

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Wedding Wednesday: William Elmer McMurray and Lynette Payne, 1899

Marriage Certificate of William Elmer McMurray and Lynette Payne, 6 June 1899, Marshalltown, Marshall County, Iowa.

McMurray Family (Click for Family Tree)

EDITOR’S NOTE: Oops! Time doesn’t really go that fast- it is not already Wednesday. Not getting the date of a post correct is a peril of working on the blog late at night. I do promise that Wednesday’s post won’t have “Tuesday” in the title.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Family treasure chest of papers and photos- thank you, dear aunt for sharing!

 

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We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.

Original content copyright 2013-2018 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly, i.e, reference this blog.
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Sentimental Sunday: Edward A. McMurray, Jr., and his Grandmother, Lynette (Payne) McMurray

This entry is part 1 of 6 in the series Edward A. McMurray, Jr.'s Photo Album
Lynette (Payne) McMurray holding her grandson, Edward A. McMurray, Jr. Taken sometime in 1924, as Ed was born April 12th of that year.

McMurray Family (Click for Family Tree)

Edward A. McMurray adored his paternal grandmother, Lynette (Payne) McMurray. He always thought of her as a kind and very refined lady. (Just look at the beautiful coat and hat she was wearing!)

Lynette was lovingly called, “Ameno,” or “Amno” as Ed noted in the photo album he created in the late 1940s. He used both spellings, and he always admitted he was not very good at spelling. (As a pharmacist, however, he could spell the generic names of a host of medicines!) “Amino” was how other family members spelled her nickname, but it was always pronounced, “Am-en-oh.”

Lynette (Payne) McMurray, possibly at Cass Lake, maybe in the 1930s? From Edward A. McMurray, Jr.’s photo album.

Lynette (Payne) McMurray (1879-1968) was the daughter of Edward Biron Payne and his wife Nanie Maria Burnell. She married William Elmer McMurray and they lived in Newton, Iowa, for all of their married life.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Family treasure chests of photos, from Ed McMurray’s photo album put together in the late 1940s, probably before he married. Perhaps the album was a way to introduce his Iowa family to his fiancé, Mary T. Helbling who lived in St. Louis, Missouri.

 

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We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.

Original content copyright 2013-2018 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly, i.e, reference this blog.
 Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.

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