Edward William Payne 1867-1945

Edward William Payne, my great grandpa, was born April 2, 1867 in Heber City, Utah, he was the sixth of thirteen children of Edward and Emma (Powell) Payne. Their family is:

·         George 1855 -1934  married Maria Gottfredson

·         Harry M  1857-1940   married Helen Buchanan and Ruth Curtis

·         Lucy  E   1860-1943   married Herbert Horace Bell

·         Thomas 1862-1864

·         Elizabeth  1864-1952   married Fredrick Hyrum Bell

·         Edward William 1867-1945   married Emily Bean, Lucy Farr, and Rosalia Tenney

·         John Henry  1869-1963   married Margaret Sampson

·         Margaret Ann 1871-1953  married  John L Foy

·         Charles Willard  1874-1967   married  Elizabeth Staker

·         James Heber  1876-1876

·         Emma Maria  1877-1877

·         Claude Brigham  1878-1945     married Alice Jensen

·         Benjamin Franklin  1881-1882

Edward William’s family moved to Coalville, Utah in the fall of 1868, and in July 1874 the family

moved to Glenwood, Utah. 

When he was twelve he and his younger brother John Henry would haul wood from the hills some times in heavy snow. He said if they were late, their father would come to meet them with a pocket of bark and some matches to build a fire to warm their hands. 

When Edward William was fourteen, his father sent him with a team to work on the railroad at Thompson Springs–now Thompson, Utah, about 26 miles East of Green River, Utah. 

At the age of sixteen, he went to Park City and worked at hauling timber and cord wood for the mines in the summer.

At seventeen, he bought a span of oxen and a wagon at Glenwood and started for Park City. By the time he reached Nephi Utah, the feet of the oxen were so sore he traded them for a pair of mules and new harness and one horse and he continued to Park City where he worked every summer until he was twenty-one. 

Edward William said he never went to school any full year but only part of a year at a time which would all combined be only about two years. He went to Sevier Stake Academy two quarters and took a six week mutual course under President Cluff  Edward William was president of the Mutual of Glenwood for a number of years and was ordained an Elder on October 16, 1887, when he was twenty years old.

At twenty-two he married Emily B Bean on October 16, 1889 in Manti Utah.

Emily Bean

For a few years he was a partner with his brother John Henry on a farm near Glenwood and on Christmas Day 1893 he was called to serve a mission to the Southern States mission. 

He was set apart and ordained a Seventy on January 26, 1894 by George Reynolds.  After filling an honorable mission he returned home in April 1896.

 In March 1897 he and his wife Emily went to Dublan Old Mexico.

A little history of Dublan, Mormon pioneers began to arrive in Mexico in 1885 because of the United States arresting and imprisoning members of the Church who were practicing polygamy.  Many chose to leave the country to practice their religion. At this point Colonia Díazwas founded.  In 1888, George M. Brown from Provo, Utah, made a deal with German-Mexican Lewis Huller for 73,000 acres of land north of what was then the Casas Grandes River. The colony, which was originally called Colonia Huller, was first settled by George Lake, a Mormon colonist.  By the spring of 1889 many others began to arrive.  In the year 1890, the LDS Church issued what is known as the Manifesto in which they said that in as much as the United States had passed laws forbidding plural marriage the Church would obey the law but in countries permitting plural marriage members of the Church were permitted by the church to have more than one wife.    Mexico was one of those countries allowing plural marriage.  Some of the members of the church who had more than one wife went to Mexico to keep from going to jail.  Others went there to be able to legally take more than one wife. The principle of plural marriage had been taught to them as a principal of religion and they wished to go to a land which would let them practice what they had been taught to believe.  The colonists rented from locals or purchased their own individual land.  A large amount of goods were needed by the colony had to be imported from the United States, prices were high.  In 1897, a railroad was built from Ciudad Juárez to a point twelve miles (19 km) outside of Dublán. 

As stated above Edward William and Emily went in 1897.  While on his mission, Edward William had became convinced that plural marriage was a correct principle and that when he returned home he wanted to join his brother Harry M. Payne, who was already in Mexico and live that principle. When he returned home from his mission and told his wife Emily how he felt, she said she was expecting this and gave her consent and they moved to Mexico. The first year or two there Edward William worked with his brother Harry M but he later bought a farm of his own. 

  

When Edward William decided he wanted to marry Lucy Farr, Emily gave her consent (this was also the same when he wanted to marry Rosalia Tenney, daughter of Ammon Meschach Tenney,  later). Emily gave her consent, but before they could be married, they had to get permission from the General Authorities of the Church as only they had the sealing power to perform these marriages. This was done in each case of these marriages and they were married by one who had been given this power.   Edward and Rosalia were married by Anthony W. Ivins.

On November 26, 1897 Edward William Payne married Lucy A. Farr in Colonia Juarez, Mexico and March 1, 1903 he married Rosalia Tenney in Dublan, Mexico. 

Lucy Farr

Rosalia Tenney

In 1904 President Joseph F. Smith told the people in Mexico that they could not practice the principal of plural marriage any longer in Mexico or any other place in the world. 

Edward William raised extra fine blooded horses while in Mexico and was sent by the community to Kansas City, Missouri to purchase special horses for breeding. He was a very good judge of horses. While they lived in Mexico he said to have accumulated property worth about $40,000 in American money based on a hand written record of his belonging there. 

At one time he went to Salt Lake City and purchased two threshing machines. One he sold to Frank Wall and the other was for the company run by Harry M Payne, Edward William Payne, and Will and Fred Jones.  At one time Harry M. and Edward W. Payne owned a dry goods store that they had purchased from J. W. Pierce. 

Emily and Edward William had no children. 

Lucy and Edward William had eight children, six of them born while in Mexico, one in Arizona and one in Utah  They are Emily Zalia 1900-1979, Edward Winslow 1902-1902, Afton Marr 1905-1969, Melvina 1908-1992, LaRue 1910-1997, Bessie 1915-1997, and Edith 1919-2012.

Rosalia Tenney (my great grandma) and Edward William had five children, four born in Mexico and one in Arizona. They are: Lavon Eagar 1903-1995,  Harry Berthell 1905-1983, Edward William Jr 1907-1983, Minnie 1911-2003, and Albert 1913-2003.

Some of Edward William’s children in Mexico

While in Mexico Edward William was President of the Mutual organization, one of the Presidents of Seventy and also served on the Stake Sunday School Board.

At the time of the Mexican Revolution, the town organized themselves for protection and he was appointed captain over ten men. The companies of men took their turns guarding the town. There were a few tense days at that time. My grandpa told me stories of these times before he died in 1983.  From his own biography “Poncho Villa was an outlaw who had started a revolution against Mexico’s Federalist government. He was very popular with the people. Some of the battle took place in the area which we lived. I remember, when I was about 5 years old, I climbed to the roof of our barn. From there I could watch the battle in the far distance. You could hear the rifle and cannon fire and see the smoke but you couldn’t see much of the men. On one occasion some of the Federalist Troops came to our home. They demanded that we give up all of our guns. They had been going from house to house collecting guns from all of the town’s people. They didn’t get very many and what they did get were of a very poor quality. The people reserved their best guns for themselves and kept them in hiding. Then it was Poncho Villa’s turn. He sent his men to collect our guns, but we informed them that the Federalists had already been there. I remember that on several occasions Poncho Villa’s men came and broke into our granary.  They took whatever they wanted when father was away. My father taught mother to fire a rifle and a pistol. She became a very good shot. At that time father had an adobe barn and their targets were placed against it. When the Rebel’s came and father was home he would go out to meet them, while mother stood behind the screen door with a pistol beneath her apron. Poncho Villa’s men still took whatever they wanted. Mostly, they took our horses.”  

Poncho Villa

In 1912, the President of the Church advised the people to leave Mexico as did the President of the United States, President Taft.  The United States sent trains to aid them in leaving Mexico. They A. B. Call and E. W. Payne were put in charge of one of the trains that would transport women and children. They had some box (cattle and freight) cars and a passenger car — eight cars all together. The women sat on bed rolls and trunks, along with the children. 

When the train Edward William has assigned to accompany,  reached El Paso Texas, they were taken to a large roofed in lumber yard and the U.S. Army and others furnished canvas which was hung to make large room size enclosures and each family was given one, until they could be picked up or helped by their relatives or friends. 

Lumber Yard

Edward William had charge of moving the families. The church furnished money to send the families to different parts of the country where they had relatives or friends. 

While they were in El Peso waiting, the people got food from a Food Depot supervised by A.B. Call. The money for the food came from the LDS Church, the same as the transportation money. Heber Farr came to El Paso and took Lucy Farr Payne and her children to Binghamton, Arizona. Later Edward William took Rosalia and her children to Binghamton Arizona too.

Emily had a decision to make when they left Mexico.  She had a home to go to in Provo and asked Edward William to go there with her.  He couldn’t leave his other wives and children.  Emily chose not to stay and went to Provo Utah. I am not sure when but Emily sought a divorce from Edward William. Emily married again to a William Christopher Bell in 1920.

Back to the two families in Arizona, here both families lived for about five years. Binghamton was a small Mormon community about six miles northeast of Tuscon, Arizona. His families lived in tents with wood floors and wood framing with the canvas tents stretched over for the sides and roof. After about a year in tents his families were moved into homes.  While they were living there, Edward William had some kind of major operation in Salt Lake City.

Edward William did not want to return to Mexico even when things settled down some and many did return.  He had had enough.  He was faced with finding a new occupation and providing for his families.  He began to sell insurance for the Beneficial Life Insurance Company with the encouragement of Rosalia and Lucy.  He did quite well.  He soon bought so cars and moved his families to Hurricane Utah.  That was in April 1917. Edward William had purchased a farm there.

In the fall of 1919 he moved his families to Provo, Utah where his twelve living children could have better opportunities for schooling.

Edward William Payne

In Provo, he purchased two homes and an apple orchard which was later sold to BYU when asked to by the Church. A football stadium and field house was built there.

Edward Willam Payne fishing

My grandpa said, “My parents provided the very best example and religious training to their children that could be given. Father was highly respected and a very religious man who did not swear or tell off color stories. They taught us to work and accept responsibility from the time we were very young.”

Edward William Payne continued in the real estate business and worked at it up until his death April 9, 1945 at the age of 78 years and one week.