I am writing this piece today, two days after my father's sister Edna has died at age 99. I am not yet ready to memorialize Aunt Edna. I will gather my thoughts and pictures and will do that soon.
I have, however, learned more about her great grandmother (my great great grandmother), Martha Jane Payne Haynes. This information was gleaned from conversations and inquiries with a person at the Fluvanna Historical Society. I have only bits and pieces but the information seems competent and matches a census that I have seen. I plan to go to Palmyra in the Spring (hoping Covid will not restrict my travels) and I hope to find out more about Martha and her first "husband" Burton Payne.
The story appears to be that Burton Payne was the son of a male who possibly owned his mother. Though Burton was of mixed race he was enslaved. During slavery he had a "marriage" to Martha. Two children were born to Martha though it is not clear if the first child, Socrates was his child. The second child was Albert who was clearly his child via oral history. It seems that Martha and the boys were sold to a 22 year old schoolteacher named Elizabeth (Stone or Smith - I have the census somewhere - she appears in the 1870 census in Lewisburg, WV along with her mother). They were transferred to Ms. S when Burton was away from the property.
On July 4, 1865, Martha married Solomon "Saul" Haynes. She had a number of children before this marriage including my ggrandmother, Elizabeth. I feel that Saul was too young to have been my ggrandmother's father. All in all, Martha had about 7 children. Martha and Saul went back to the Palmyra area after emancipation and can be found there on the 1880 census (working tobacco) - again I will have to verify this information. However, Solomon is clearly Saul Haynes on the census and should be easy to find with his wife Martha. The boys (young and older) are all living in one property, and Elizabeth is living with a neighbor. Charlotte cannot be found after a certain period of time and she may have died young. Burton's second wife was also named Martha.
I am writing all of this from memory and will go back and edit it and provide more info. I believe that the second family of Burton Payne (and his second wife Martha) has done significant research on him but I have not yet seen this information. I am not sure if they have a blog or if they publish their information in any form.
