Memorial Record of Western Kentucky, Lewis Publishing Company, 1904,
pp 678-680 [Graves]

     JOAB PAYNE, a native Kentuckian and one of the best known
residents of Graves county, is now a prosperous tobacco-raiser near
Mayfield, but, before this position of comfortable material
circumstances and esteem among his fellow citizens was attained,
there where many degrees and progressive steps accomplished by hard
labor, unflagging energy and business ability.  Mr. Payne is a good
sample of the self-made man.  Endowed at the beginning with little
education, and no opportunity to obtain one except during spare
moments between periods of hard labor from the time he was a boy, he
has made his way over and through obstacles, learning by experience
and hard knocks, and is to-day [sic] one of the most respected and
worthy citizens of western Kentucky.  He has endured what seems more
than the usual lot of man in the way of trials and sufferings and
losses, but has persevered to the end and has reason to be content
with his present surroundings.
     Mr. Payne's father died soon after the birth of his son, and
his mother, Mrs. Phoebe (Payne) Payne, a daughter of John and Fannie
(Thomason ) Payne, natives of Virginia, died January 9, 1903, when
seventy-three years of age, and was the mother of two children,
Margaret, who married Upton Crooks, and died at the age of forty-four,
and Joab.
     Joab Payne was born in Christian county, Kentucky, September
25, 1848, and owning to his father's death was early obliged to make
a living for himself and mother, whom he, with praiseworthy filial
affection and duty, continued to support till her death.  At the age
of twelve years he was taken by his mother to Trigg county,
Kentucky, and the family settled in Graves county in 1876.  He began
working as a farm hand, and for four years received but fifteen
dollars and board.  He was never able to go to school a day in his
life, but like many who have been reared under such circumstances,
his close observation and active intelligence have supplied him with
the needed knowledge so that he has always carried on his business
affairs with acumen and ability even without the aid of extensive
book learning.  He has had to progress gradually, "make haste
slowly," as the proverb goes, but has likewise surely arrived at a
considerable degree of prosperity, and is at present owner of a good
farm of fifty-three acres two miles from Mayfield, on the Columbus
road, and he is making a success of his tobacco-raising.
     In politics Mr. Payne is a Democrat, and he has been a
consistent member of the Baptist church since he was twenty years of
age.  In 1869 Mr. Payne married Miss Lucy Spencer, who died in 1885,
having been the mother of three children: Ella, born October 12,
1870, who married John Clark, a farmer of Graves county; John, born
January 7, 1873; and Iva, born November 11, 1881, who married Orvil
McClenihan.  Mr. Payne afterward married Miss Josie Arnet, of Trigg
county, Kentucky, and their two children were Camnia, born October
6, 1892, and Josie, born May 5, 1896.  Mrs Payne died in 1896, and
in 1899 Mr. Payne married Mrs. Ella Willis, nee Blackburn, who was
born in Obion county, Tennessee, and by her marriage to Joseph
Willis had three children, as follows: James, born September 19,
1885, and died May 25, 1892; Erie, born December 11, 1889, and died
November 11, 1891; and Effie, born October 27, 1887, and married
Bruce McClanahan in 1902.
     James Blackburn, the father of Mrs. Payne, was born April 25,
1824, in North Carolina, and was killed by a train in June, 1903,
being at that time over seventy=-nine years of age.  He married
Martha Ward, who was also born in North Carolina, February 2, 1826,
and she was twelve and he was fourteen when they were brought by their
respective parents to Gibson county, Tennessee, where they
grew up on neighboring farms and in 1841 were married.  They removed
to Obion county, Tennessee, whence a number of years later they went
to Weakley county, in the same state, and there Martha Blackburn
died October 18, 1895, aged seventy years.  Their nine children were
as follows: Andrew, deceased, Frank, Emma, Preston, James, Robert,
Henry, deceased, Ella and Katie.  Mr. Blackburn was a Republican,
and he was a Presbyterian, while his wife was a Methodist.

Payne Thomason Crooks Spencer Clark McClenihan Arnet Wills Blackburn
McClanahan Ward
=
VA Christian-KY Trigg-KY Obion-TN NC Gibson-TN Weakley-TN

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/graves/payne.j.txt