WHEN PAYNE KILLED LIVINGSTON

The night that Payne killed Jim Livingston, Mr. Williams was just stepping into Simmons barbershop about dark. He heard some loud talk, stepped back into the street, and looked down the street toward Matheson’s saloon, but did not at first recognize the parties. That Jim ("Shack") Livingston [James S. "Jim" Livingston] was talking to Payne in a loud voice. Payne was mumbling and he could not understand what he was saying. That Livingston reached for Payne’s throat and Payne shot him through the arm, the ball then going into his right side. 

Livingston fell at the saloon door and was left almost alone. Prior to that Crockett Hendricks had Livingston by the arm and was trying to lead him away. That Livingston had whipped Payne. Payne had walked off, gotten out his pistol which he always carried under his arm under a tight jacket. Mr. Williams went to where Livingston was and called for Doctor Kooken.

His account of the events preceding the killing are practically the way Tom Roddy (my uncle) tells it. Payne had gone on John Bond’s bond to supply a certain number of cattle and made bond to that effect. According to Uncle Tom, Livingston was also on the bond. Mr. Williams said that he did not know about that. Anyway Payne was in a bad humor that day and they both said that he came to town that day to get bond. Mr. Williams said that Payne came to him in the morning and said that he was going out to Pottsville where Bond was gathering the cattle, to kill him, and that Mr. Williams hired a boy to go out and tell Bond to get out of the way, which he did. The trouble was, Payne claimed that Bond had drawn down the money, without furnishing the cattle and left him liable on the bond.

I believe that it was Mr. P. M. Rice who told me that Livingston and Payne were together earlier in the day and both were seeking bond out for a settlement or possibly it was Uncle Tom Roddy who told me. And that they got to drinking and fell out among themselves.

Mr. Williams said he heard Livingston say, "I am the change for you" as he reached for Payne’s throat. This seems to have been a common expression in that day. He said that he could have done anything with Shack (Mr. Livingston) but thought that Hendricks could look after him all right.

Mr. Williams said that Bud Payne from Coryell County told him a year or so before that what Payne said to Livingston was "and I went over to Meridian for you and swore to some ... lied to save you.!" Livingston had been indicted and tried in that county for theft of cattle. And Mr. P. M. Rice, who chanced to be near at the time of the shooting, said he heard one voice say, "Yes, and my wife and children and me picked cotton to get money to fee lawyers for you."

Payne had told Mr. Williams that he admired his horse so much that if he ever wanted to make a quick get-away he would take it. He thought that he might do that and after the killing sent his brother, Hogue to his house to tell Mrs. Williams. She was there with the baby boys and he was afraid Payne would come there for the horse and scare her. Mr. Williams then got a buggy and with someone else went out to tell Mrs. Livingston, who was just up from child birth.

Uncle Tom Roddy said there was an Odd Fellow funeral that day, and that Livingston got off his horse and fell into the procession with the Odd Fellows on the square as the procession came along. He said that Payne layed out for a long time in the Leon River breaks and would slip in to town at nights to see Uncle John Main, and that he had sent word that he would give up to Sheriff Press Kinsey.  [T. P. Kensey was sheriff from 1904-1906,  --E. Weathers]

Mr. Williams said that he did hid out but that Kinsey sent Sid Dinkins, who was his deputy, out to get Payne. That they found out or suspected where his hideout was and that Dinkins waylaid him by waiting at the path to his house from his hiding place and threw down on him and took him.

He said that Payne came from Hill County and was reputed to have killed a man or two there, that he was very high tempered and mean and a killed, but was a pretty good fellow in some ways.

My Uncle Tom Roddy, who was farm manager out on Uncle John Main’s ranch, north of town where US281 runs now, told me that before he went to Oklahoma, he had sold some feed to Main for the ranch. He was unloading the feed at the barn, and sat down and rubbed his head and said it was giving him a headache,  and that sometimes he thought there was always something wrong with his head.

(Frank Hartgraves and Price M. Rice told me in some detail of the trial of Payne in 1898 for killing Livingston.

It was said that Payne stayed on the John Livingston ranch in New Mexico for a while.

Mr. Williams said Livingston was killed sometime between 1898 and 1902, for it was while he was county clerk. That the Poe killing was in 1886. He thought it was the same day that they had a county election here on the question of moving the county seat to Peg Town or Hunt’s Donation to the west. That was the year the courthouse burned down and old Captain Hunt had staked out some land on the Cow House and offered it to the county for a countyseat.

Hosea Underwood and his two hands were the only ones that voted for Peg Town in Hamilton. Mr. Williams kidded him about it, and when he made out his ticket for it at the election he wrote "Stake Town" on it for him and purposely made it illegal. He said he didn’t know why they voted that way. He said they would look the other way and let minors vote that day, such as (his brother) John Mark Williams.

Mr. Williams confirmed the story that Payne was shot in Oklahoma a quarter of a mile away. [????]

He said that Mrs. Livingston [Mary Augusta "Gussie" (Carter) Livingston] was a very fine woman.

"Gussie never remarried. Payne was shot and killed in OK. about 2 years later I believe. From our research, I believe that Gussie was also a very fine lady. Her house in the Rockhouse area was always the center of things particularly on Sundays after church. Charlene's dad spent a lot of time visiting his grandmother as a child."