Sponsored by:AMB
John Payne Jr. Veteran
1815 – 1863 Songer Cemetery
- Birth
-
Hamilton County, Ohio, USA
- Death
- 13 Sep 1863 (aged 48)
Danville, Vermilion County, Illinois, USA
- Burial
-
Danville, Vermilion County, Illinois, USA Add to Map
- Memorial ID
- 27988743 View Source
Shot dead for wearing butternut pin
John Payne, Jr., was shot on the Court House steps in Danville, Illinois, on August 24, 1863. He was shot for wearing a "butternut pin," a symbol of support for Confederate troops, or for the support of the idea that states could secede from the Union. Less than a month later, John died from that gun shot.
From his gravestone:
***
The brave man seeks not popular applause,
nor over-powered with arms
deserts his cause.
Undaunted, though foiled,
he does the best he can.
Force is of brutes, but honor is of man.
***
The quote is from poet John Dryden's "Palamon and Arcite." It was not by accident that John's surviving family had those words carved in stone for John.
The local sheriff who was called in to quell the ensuing riot was John's own brother, William Milton Payne.
John had served in the U.S. Army during the Mexican War. He had three sons serving in the U.S. Army during the Civil War; he had a brother serving as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Civil War. He was no coward. He was simply a man with his own opinion about what was happening in the Civil War.
As decades passed, some of his descendants attempted to pretend that John had been wearing the butternut pin "by accident." That is not believable. And the words carved in his gravestone argue that -- at the time of his death -- the family knew why he had been killed.
John was twice married. First, to Virletta O'NEAL; they had seven children -- six of whom lived to maturity. Second, to Priscilla NIXON, the widow BEEZLEY; they had three children, all who lived to maturity.
Brother of Sabina, Delila, Peter, Morgan, Esther, William, Squire, and Martin.
Children born to his first marriage: William, Alonzo, Malinda, Abel Wade, Permelia, Addison, George.
NOTE: Grear-great-grandfather of AMB (page creator).
Shot dead for wearing butternut pin
John Payne, Jr., was shot on the Court House steps in Danville, Illinois, on August 24, 1863. He was shot for wearing a "butternut pin," a symbol of support for Confederate troops, or for the support of the idea that states could secede from the Union. Less than a month later, John died from that gun shot.
From his gravestone:
***
The brave man seeks not popular applause,
nor over-powered with arms
deserts his cause.
Undaunted, though foiled,
he does the best he can.
Force is of brutes, but honor is of man.
***
The quote is from poet John Dryden's "Palamon and Arcite." It was not by accident that John's surviving family had those words carved in stone for John.
The local sheriff who was called in to quell the ensuing riot was John's own brother, William Milton Payne.
John had served in the U.S. Army during the Mexican War. He had three sons serving in the U.S. Army during the Civil War; he had a brother serving as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Civil War. He was no coward. He was simply a man with his own opinion about what was happening in the Civil War.
As decades passed, some of his descendants attempted to pretend that John had been wearing the butternut pin "by accident." That is not believable. And the words carved in his gravestone argue that -- at the time of his death -- the family knew why he had been killed.
John was twice married. First, to Virletta O'NEAL; they had seven children -- six of whom lived to maturity. Second, to Priscilla NIXON, the widow BEEZLEY; they had three children, all who lived to maturity.
Brother of Sabina, Delila, Peter, Morgan, Esther, William, Squire, and Martin.
Children born to his first marriage: William, Alonzo, Malinda, Abel Wade, Permelia, Addison, George.
NOTE: Grear-great-grandfather of AMB (page creator).
Family Members
See more Payne memorials in:
- Maintained by: AMB
- Originally Created by: Lesa Epperson
- Added: Jul 2, 2008
- Find a Grave Memorial ID:
-
Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/27988743/john-payne: accessed ), memorial page for John Payne Jr. (24 Aug 1815–13 Sep 1863), Find a Grave Memorial ID 27988743, citing Songer Cemetery, Danville, Vermilion County, Illinois, USA; Maintained by AMB (contributor 46844067).