My great, great, great grandfather, up through my father, through his mother and on back, was Barzilla Payn (later spelled Payne) (1808-1863), who traveled from Paoli, Indiana, to Texas with his extended family of ten in the early 1850s. Like many, he sought opportunities on the Texas frontier and was willing to risk the unknown to create a better life for himself and his family. Given his early service as a volunteer soldier, he was no stranger to placing himself in harm’s way, and he must have had an adventurer’s spirit.
The nine-hundred mile journey by horse and wagon was hazardous and long: on a good day, they could travel about twenty miles. He and his family settled in Austin for a short time, then they moved northwesterly toward their new home in Lampasas County, south of what would become Payne Gap. There Barzilla purchased, for forty dollars, eighty acres of raw land from the state. Trained as a shoemaker in Indiana, he adapted to frontier life by becoming a farmer and sheep rancher.
More details of his story, including his tragic death, are revealed in the cemetery record of his daughter, Martha Jane “Mattie” [Payne] Jenkins (1839-1917). Her life, together with her family’s, form the core of how Payne Gap came to be.
This is so interesting! Probably, my great-grandfather, William (Grandpa Billy) Carswell bought part of the Brister place on your map here since that designation remains on the tax records as the Brister place. A Mr. Brister is on quite a few of our records so he must have been a descendent and owner of that piece of property. I believe my dad, Aubrey W. (Pat) Carswell, bought that property from Mrs. Dave Phillips.
Patsy! Thanks for adding to the story of Payne Gap. I know the Carswells played a pivotal role in the Payne Gap/Moline stories.