Barnes & Payne

    The partnership was established in May, 1881, and their stock consists of drugs, brushes, paints, oils, books, stationery, etc., to the value of about $5,000. Their annual sales are between $10,000 and $15,000. For a country town, their stock is above the average. They are doing a large and remunerative trade.

    S. T. Barnes, senior partner, was born at Battle Ground, in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, July 24, 1852. He is the youngest of nine children, two of whom are deceased, born to Samuel and Nancy (Rice) Barnes, natives of Ohio, and of Scotch and Irish descent respectively. The father died March 14, 1863, but the mother yet resides at Battle Ground. S.T. Barnes received a good, practical education, and at the age of twenty-one became a drug clerk in his native town. At the end of two years, he went to Delphi, and for another year clerked in the drug store of W. F. Lytle, who became his partner at Rockfield, Indiana, in 1876. In 1879, this partnership was dissolved. Mr. Barnes removing to Brookston, White County, where for about a year he conducted a drug store; but in June, 1880, he came to Fowler, and until his present partnership was formed, was associated in trade with J. M. Dickson. Mr. Barnes is a Democrat, and a member of the Masonic Order. He was married, May 14, 1878, to Miss Olla Head, a daughter of Truxton Head, of Brookston, Indiana. To them have been born three children -Samuel T., born March 2, 1879; Ethel, born May 31, 1880, and Raymond, born June 28, 1882. Only the eldest is now living. The mother is a member of the Christian Church.

    James W. Payne, junior member of Barnes & Payne, is a Hoosier by birth and was born in Tippecanoe County, May 10, 1858, and is the youngest living of three children in a family of five, born to William and Elizabeth (Thomas) Payne, who were both born and reared in England. William Payne emigrated to the United states in 1839, and his wife in 1845. They were married in 1846, and in 1848 removed West to Tippecanoe County, Indiana, where they have since resided in Montmorenci, where Mr. Payne is engaged in wagon and carriage manufacturing. James W. Payne, after attending the public schools of Montmorenci, until the age of nineteen, studied at Purdue University for one year. He began teaching school, and followed that for three winter terms. In May, 1881, he came to Fowler. November 7, 1880, he was married to Miss Nellie Worthington of La Fayette, Indiana, and to their union has been born one daughter, Lela. Mr. Payne is a Republican, and his wife is a member of the M. E. Church.

Source: Counties of Warren, Benton, Jasper and Newton, Indiana. Historical and Biographical. F.A. Battey & Co., 1883.