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BARBOUR COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Valerie & Tommy Crook
vfcrook@trellis.net
March 19, 2000
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 362
JOHN B. PAYNE, M. D. It is reported that the great
Galen once boasted: "I have done as much for medicine
as Trojan did for the Roman Empire in building bridges
and roads throughout Italy," thus emphasizing with the
greatest then-known marvels of accomplishment his own
benefactions to humanity. Yet, in the light of modern
medical science, how little Galen really did and how radi-
cally incorrect, remarkable as they were proved many of
his theories and conclusions. To the members of the medi-
cal profession the early teachers will ever continue great,
but a physician or surgeon of the present day whose pro-
fessional knowledge is not vastly broader, higher and
deeper, could not lay much stress upon his equipment for
his calling. Dr. John B. Payne kept fully abreast of the
marvelous developments in the profession, his training was
long and thorough and he was engaged in practice for
twenty-six years.
Doctor Payne was born at Philippi, Barbour County,
West Virginia. December 31, 1871, a son of Frank E. and
Virginia (Simon) Payne, the former a native of Loudoun
County, Virginia, and the latter of Barbour County, West
Virginia. Frank E. Payne was an agriculturist by occupa-
tion and a man of some prominence in his community,
where he was held in the highest esteem. He and his
worthy wife were the parents of eight children, six sons
and two daughters, whom they reared on the farm and
brought up to lives of industry and integrity.
John B. Payne obtained a good common school educa-
tion, and taught in the rural schools two years. As a stu-
dent, first in the Fairmont State Normal School and later
in the West Virginia University, his literary education,
preparatory to that of medicine, was completed. He
finished the prescribed course in medicine at the College
of Physicians and Surgeons at Baltimore, Maryland, and
received his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1896. For the
following six and one-half years he was successfully en-
gaged in the practice of medicine and surgery at Lumber-
port, Harrison County, whence he removed to Clarksburg
in the fall of 1902. While engaged in practice there he
occupied well-appointed offices in the Union Bank Build-
ing. In 1906 Doctor Payne took a postgraduate course in
the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Baltimore. Soon
after locating at Clarksburg, where his reputation had
preceded him, he secured a desirable practice, and long
held rank among the leading physicians and surgeons of
the city. He became an active and valued member of the
Harrison County Medical Society, the West Virginia State
Medical Society and the American Medical Association.
He belonged to the staff of St. Mary's Hospital, Clarks-
burg. In the fall of 1922 Doctor Payne retired and
moved to Washington, D. C., to his thirty-six-acre "city
farm," which will be his future home.
For eighteen years Doctor Payne has been a member
of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and for
three years of the Independent Order of Foresters. He
is a state officer in the latter fraternity, being a High
Court Physician and has also represented his state in the
Supreme Court of Foresters at Toronto, Canada. In his
political allegiance he supports stanchly the candidates
and ideals of the democratic organization. His religious
faith is that of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Doctor Payne has been twice married. In 1896 Miss
Sallie Corpening became his wife. She died in 1911, leav-
ing a son and a daughter: John Edward, a graduate of
medicine from the University of Maryland in June, 1922;
and Virginia, who graduated in the same month from
Millersburg (Kentucky) Female College. In 1912 Doctor
Payne was united in marriage with Miss Eulainne Strove,
and to this union there have come four children: Dorothy
Jean, born in 1914; Kirby B., born in 1917; Billie F.,
horn in 1919; and Benjamin B., born in 1922. All the
children were born in Clarksburg, West Virginia.
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