My Genealogy Hound

Joseph B. Payne, M. D., was born in Wilkinson County, Ga., December 22, 1833. His father, Phillip Payne, was born in June, 1812. His mother, whose maiden name was Nancy Thomas, was born in 1815 and died in 1851. His grandfather, Joseph Payne, was born in Kershaw District, South Carolina, and emigrated to the State of Georgia shortly after his marriage to Mary Brassfield in 1794. His great-grandfather, Phillip Payne, was a native of Virginia, and his wife, Mary Flannegan, was an Irish lady from the North of Ireland. The subject of this sketch was educated at the Harrison Academy, in his native State, but grew up to manhood in Louisiana, to which State his father emigrated in 1849. Here he assisted on the farm until he entered the office of Dr. John R. Wilder as a student of medicine in November, 1851, with whom he remained four years, attending his first course of lectures in the Medical Department of the University of Louisiana at the session of 1853-54. In November, 1854, he entered the Memphis Medical College, and was graduated there from in March, 1855. Returning home at the close of the session, he was offered a partnership with his preceptor, with whom he remained one year. The following year he removed to Arkansas, locating at Magnolia, the county seat of Columbia County. Here, on December 4, 1856, he was united in marriage to Miss Martha A. E. Harper, the daughter of the Rev. R. G. Harper, then clerk of the district court. In the fall of 1858 he returned to New Orleans and matriculated in the New Orleans School of Medicine, graduating there from at the close of the session of 1858-59. In March, 1862, he enlisted as a private soldier in the Confederate States army, and on April 13 following, at Fort Pillow, was appointed by Col. H. P. Smead surgeon of the Nineteenth Arkansas Infantry, having served for a short time previously as sergeant-major of the regiment. At the close of the war he went to Mexico. Returning from there in the summer of 1866, he located in Texas, where he remained until the fall of 1879, when he returned to Arkansas, locating at Hot Springs, where he now resides. In the fall of 1872 he went to New Orleans and again entered the Medical Department of the University of Louisiana for the session of 1872-73. In 1878 he attended the spring course of lectures in the Missouri Medical College, and again, in 1884, attended two courses of instruction in the St. Louis College for Medical Practitioners, at the close of which he was made an associate member of the college. Again, in the fall of 1887, he returned to St. Louis and took a full course of instruction in the Post Graduate Medical College. Dr. Payne has been constantly engaged in the practice of medicine for nearly thirty-five years. He is now a member of the board of school directors for Hot Springs District, and served for a short time as city physician (in 1884), the office being discontinued shortly after his appointment. He is a Chapter Mason and a member of the Knights of Honor; also a member of the Hot Springs Medical Society and a fellow of the American Rhinological Association. Mrs. Payne is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. They have six children living.