WILLIAM Z. PAYNE has spent his entire life on the valuable homestead on which he now resides, and which has been in the Payne family for three generations. He was born in Vigo county, Indiana, November 5, 1858, a son of Isaac T. and Emeline (Anderson) Payne and a grandson of Shadrach and Mary Payne, both of whom were born in Virginia. They were farming people there until their removal to Kentucky from whence they came to Sullivan county, Indiana, in 1835, and entered the one hundred and sixty acre farm which is now the home of their grandson William. They spent the remainder of their lives in this county, and were the parents of seven children, of whom the following two are now living: Bennett, at Oblong, Illinois, and Melvina Blackburn, a resident of Bedford, Indiana.
Isaac T. Payne, one of the sons of that family, was born during the residence of his parents in Kentucky, September 5, 1830. He too, was an agriculturist throughout his entire business life, and lived on his farm of eighty acres here all his life, with the exception of ten years spent in Vigo county, his death occurring here in 1904. His wife died in 1900. She was born in Fairbanks township, Sullivan county, May 18, 1830, the same year as her husband, and their family numbered but two children, William Z. and his sister, Mary Williams, whose home is in Vigo county.
William Z. Payne, the younger, remained with his parents until their death, and on the 4th of September, 1879, he was married to Mary E. Martin, who was born in Middletown, Vigo county, Indiana, February 4, 1858, a daughter of William and Violet Martin, the mother surviving her husband and residing in Sullivan. The four children of this union are: Walter F., who married Ida Harlan, and is one of the well known physicians of Middletown; Bertha Marts, whose home is in Hamilton township; James W., who married Lilly Thomson, and is a mail carrier of Shelburn; and Claude, at home.
Mr. Payne began life for himself on his father's farm, which he purchased before the latter's death, and his estate now numbers eighty acres, and he is engaged in general farming and stock raising. His politics are Democratic, and he is a member of both the Odd Fellows lodge, No. 420, at Shelburn, and of the Christian church. Mrs. Payne being also a member of that denomination. They are people of the highest worth of character, and Curry township is proud to claim them among her residents.