- WILLIAM PAYNE, retired merchant, has been a resident of Janesville
since 1861. He is a native
- of Connecticut, born in Waterbury, New Haven County, in 1814.
His grandfather, Thomas PAYNE, was a plain farmer of that town,
about three miles from the site of the present city of Waterbury,
where Raphael PAYNE, father of our subject, was born . Tradition
says that three brothers from England landed on the coast of
New England among the Puritan immigrants - two of whom settled
in Massachusetts, and the other in Connecticut. The first two
and their descendants spelled their name "PAINE", while
the progenitor of those mentioned in this article adopted the
spelling used by them.
- Raphael PAYNE married Ruth MIX, a native of Meriden, and
soon after the birth of our subject
- removed to Meriden to reside. When William was five years
old, the family removed to New York State, where the father died
six years later. From this time forward the son has made his
own way in the world. At the age of thirteen he returned to Meriden
with his mother, and found employment in a shop which was the
nucleus of the present mammoth Meriden Britannia Company. He
proved an apt and ambitious workman, and in a strife in which
he exceeded the amount of work done by any other employe of the
establishment, he brought on a pain in his side that compelled
him to leave the shop. He was now seventeen years old, and spent
some time in canvassing for the sale of a book, with good success.
In 1835, at New Britain, Conn., he wedded Julia, daughter of
Abraham THORP, who was of English descent. Proceeding at once
to Geauga County, Ohio, he purchased a farm at Huntsburg, and
engaged in its cultivation. His old weakness soon compelled him
to abandon farming, and he resumed the occupation of salesman,
for which he was so well adapted. He engaged with a friend at
Elyria, Ohio, who manufactured silverware. Besides the product
of this factory he dealt in jewelry and shell combs - the latter
being then considered an indispensable accessory to the toilet
of every lady. In a short time Mr. PAYNE disposed of his farm,
and began to employ peddlers on his own account. The financial
stress of 1837 bore hard upon him, and he was obliged to close
up his business, and spent over two years in colleting sufficient
funds to pay up claims against him - every dollar of which was
met, with interest. An exception occurred in the case of one
creditor, who refused to accept interest under such circumstances.
- For seven years Mr. PAYNE sold woolen goods form a wagon
for an Ohio manufacturer. In
- 1842 he went to Pittsburgh, Pa., and engaged as salesman
in a wholesale drygoods house. Here his extensive acquaintance
with Ohio merchants proved of great value, and when his employers
were burned out, which occurred in a short time, he was at once
secured by another firm, viz: Shacklett & Glyde. In 1850
he was taken as partner in the concern, under the firm name of
B. C. Shacklett & Co., and seven years later became sole
owner. In 1858 he admitted a partner, and the firm became WILSON,
PAYNE & Co. The business prospered, but Mr. PAYNE was obliged
by failing health to retire in 1860. At that time he bought forty
acres of land within the present limits of the city of Janesville,
and, after a year of travel, settled down here to reside. Most
of his winters are spent in Florida, where he has real estate
investments.
- As a means of avoiding idleness, Mr. PAYNE, with others,
established the Janesville Woolen Mill,
- the proprietors being PAYNE, HASTINGS & Co. When the
concern was incorporated, he was made its president, but has
now disposed of his stock. He is a stockholder in the Janesville
Machine Company, but gives no attention to active business He
has always sustained the Republican party in national issues,
and with his wife is a member of the Baptist Church, of Janesville.
Their only child, Mrs. M. P. LEAVITT, who resides with them,
is also a worker in that society.
- Mr. PAYNE enjoys the happy reflection - which is denied to
many - that no one ever lost a dollar
- through his transactions. The drygoods house of which he
was a member did a business of half a million dollars per annum.
It has been established for eighty-five years in the same city,
and is probably the oldest house of its kind in America that
never suspended nor failed.
-
- Taken from "The Portrait and Biographical Album of
Rock County, Wis." (c)1889, pp. 549-550.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
|