Poindexter Payne

1800, Location: , Franklin, GA, USA. 22 30 Payne's Cove Thomas Payne, Sr. and wife, Yannaka Ayers, owned land with their son, Poindexter Payne, in Franklin County, GA. They sold their land in 1811, and Poindexter moved to Pendleton County, SC. At some point between 1811 and 1820, he and his family migrated to Franklin County, TN. When the 1820 census was taken, Poindexter Payne was ling in Franklin County, TN, and was reported to be over 45 years old. He had lignin with him: 3 males under 10, 1 male, age 16-18, 1male, age 18-28, 2 females under 10, 2 females, age 16-18, 1 female, age 26-45. The latter was wife, Annie Bell Hill. Poindexter and Annie Bell settled in the protected reaches of what is now their namesake, Payne's Cove. According to oral history the first Payne settlement was right at the base of Spring Hollow, just northeast of Roberts' Cemetery. The old home place was located by a spring which supplied water, and the nearby forest supplied game. A grandson of Poindexter Payne gave his name to the ridge which separates Payne's Cove & Burrows' Coves. He was William Elson "Bud" Payne who built a log house on the ridge and raised a family there with his wife Mary Angeline Meeks. Jerome Payne still talks of the peach orchard his daddy planted on the side of the mountain and of the good water which came from the spring on the ridge. Mary Elsie (Payne) Layne, Bud & Angie's daughter, related stories of the night hikes along a narrow path to church either at Bethel or Payne's Cove. There is no house on the ridge today, only the remains of an ancient rock chimney. Somewhere near the garden, now a mass of trees, are the graves of the twin girls, lost at birth, who would have been a part of this mountain family. The Payne & Sanders families appear to have been contemporaries in the cove. Although neither family surname is now represented in Payne's Cove, there are many descendants.

• 1820, Census: Federal, , Franklin, TN, USA. 31

• 28 Sep 1852, Land &/or Property: Anna Payne, Anderson S. Goodman & wife Evalina, et al , , Grundy, TN, USA. 19

...all of Grundy Co., the heirs and widow of Poindexter Payne, to Ephriam Phillips and wife Sarah of Same, 55 a. in Payne's Cove for $300. Bounded on north by heirs of Poindexter Payne, dec'd, formerly but now owned by Jourdin Sanders, James Meeks and others. Bounded on the east by Thomas Sanders, on the south by John Meeks (formerly Elias Person[sic]) on the west by the mountain. Wit: R.B Roberts, Jourdain Sanders.  

• 29 Sep 1852, Land &/or Property: Ephriam Phillips & wife Sarah to Jourdin Sanders, , Grundy, TN, USA. 32

...for $900.00, lands which Ellias Pierson/Person owned in his lifetime, part of which he purchased from William Burrows, which Burrows had purchased from the heirs of Poindexter Payne, part purchased from Solomon Sanders, dec'd, part of which Pierson "borrowed against for in consideration with James H. Perkins" [?] which is the spur of the mountain between Payne's Cove, formerly Trussell Cove, & Burrows Cove. All of the land is in Payne's Cove on south side of Elk River, on a creek called Green Swamp or Yellow Creek. Adjoins the dower land of Pierson's widow, now owned by John Meeks, adjoins Isaac Meeks, Jackson Phipps, Thomas Sanders, The Perkins & Ellis survey, and Eli Stonestreet's lands which are now owned by Jourdin Sanders. Includes the land on which Elias Pierson lived until his death, which descended to the Phillips as equal heirs. No wit.