Above and below are the grave markers for James
Buchanan Payne an his wife, Hettie. They are buried in the same plot as is their infant son and their daughter, Lena and her husband John Smith. The entire plot is marked with a Payne -Smith Monument.
◄At the left is the grave
of J.B. Payne's daughter, "Lena".
Below is the Payne-Smith Monument and the
marker for Lena's husband, "Curtis".▼
Name: James Buchanan Payne
Born When: 11 March 1857
Born Where: Danville, Vermilion, Illinois
Married When: License - 10 February 1877
Married Where: Danville, Illinois
Wife's Name: Hettie 0. (Warner) Payne
Died When: 23 February 1939
Died Where: Potomac, Illinois
Buried Where: Potomac Cemetery
Additional Information: Hettie 0. (Warner) Payne was from Newtown, Illinois. She was a native of Ohio and she died November 18, 1932. Her father was John P. Warner, a native of Maryland, and her mother was Sarah Ellen (Truax) Warner, a native of Ohio.
The following was taken from the "History of Vermilion County", by Jack Moore Williams, 1930, Historical Publishing Company, Topeka and Indianapolis:
The couple commenced housekeeping in Catlin where he operated the old Goins coal shaft until 1884, when they moved to Potomac where they still reside. When they first came to Potomac, he engaged in the grocery and restaurant business. In 1886 he was appointed postmaster under President Grover Cleveland and held that office for nearly four years. He then took up the insurance business and in 1903 Elmer Moreland, of Potomac, entered into partnership with him, under the firm name of Payne and Moreland, a firm which still exists. Mr. Payne was for several years agent for the New York Life Insurance Company of Springfield, Illinois with the firm of Payne and Moreland in Potomac at that time taking a general agency with this company, and still holds that agency. The firm also holds the district agency for the farm department of the Fidelity-Phoenix Insurance Company of New York and writes for the Hartford Fire, the Fire Association of Philadelphia, the Home of New York and the Central Surety and Insurance Corporation of Kansas City, Missouri.
Mr. Payne was a charter member of the Potomac Building and Loan Association and was secretary of that corporation for nineteen years. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of the Odd Fellows Encampment. Mrs. Payne has been identified with the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union for about forty years and is one of the leading workers in Vermilion County.
Mr. and Mrs. Payne are active members of the Methodist Church of Potomac and are ardent supporters of all movements that are for the betterment of the community. They had one son who died in infancy and a daughter, Lena V. (Payne) Smith, who was married to John Curtis Smith, of Potomac. To this couple was born a daughter, Louise Payne Smith, who was graduated from Potomac Grade and High Schools and from the Illinois Woman’s College of Jacksonville, Illinois, and for the past three years has been the supervisor of music in Oblong, Illinois, High School.
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