Ellen Payne

Ellen Payne, born Ellen Evans, was enslaved by Dr. Evans, a pioneer physician of Marshall, Texas, on the old Mauldin place. Her parents were Isom and Becky Lewis, and she was one of seventeen children. Her mother came from Tennessee. Dr. Evans lent out the Bible that recorded the ages of the people he enslaved and never got it back, so at freedom their ages had to be guessed; her mistress figured Ellen was about sixteen. About thirty people worked the farm four miles from town. Ellen minded the calves, chickens and turkeys, and sometimes worked in town with her mother. Her father earned money making baskets and chair bottoms, and each enslaved person had a patch to farm and sell from.

The Evanses' daughter married Edward Clark, who became governor of Texas around the time the war began, and Ellen and her mother worked for the couple for a time; she still had a Bible he gave her. When freedom came, the old doctor told them, "You is free, and I'm mighty glad, but I'm mighty sad." They stayed until Christmas, then left to hire out.

At 25 she married Nelson Payne in her mother's house, in a blue worsted dress her former young mistress sent. They farmed near Marshall for 52 years and raised four sons, none of whom were living when she was interviewed at 88. After Nelson's death she ran the farm herself and made a crop every year. She still shouted at camp meetings near Karnack and couldn't hold it back when the spirit hit her "like a streak of lightning."