The History of our Public Schools
Wyandotte County, Kansas

 

 

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Payne School

Location: southwest corner of 38th & Metropolitan

Year built: 1889

Other names: Stanley Grade School, New Stanley

Building destroyed: September 5, 1912

“Centennial History of Argentine”, Kansas City, Kansas 1880-1980
Simmons Funeral Home, Inc.

"The Stanley Grade School was built in 1889 on land purchased from the legal guardian of George Washington. Washington was the son of a Shawnee Indian named White Feather. The original school was called the Gibbs and Payne School and consisted of four rooms. Gibbs and Payne were land developers and prominent early citizens of Argentine and the school was located in the old Gibbs and Payne Addition of Argentine. This structure burned on September 5, 1912."  Submitted by Edwin D. Shutt II.

pg. 171:  "The family of Steven Payne and Ruth Louis Payne settled on a farm near what is now 50th and Metropolitan.  Steven was taken from a sick bed and killed by "bushwhackers" who came over from Missouri during the Civil War. Thomas J. Payne, a son was called home from service to operate the farm and care for his mother.  

Shortly after the war ended in 1868, Thomas Payne married Sarah Jane Stover, daughter of Charles and Mary Lovecale Stover,  There were eight children, but four of them died in infancy.

T. J. Payne went into real estate development with Mr. John Gibbs, Jr. Their land grant was sixty acres and became Gibbs and Paynes Addition.  The Payne family built a twenty-four room home at 1620 South 37th. The home burned and was replaced by the house that eventually became the Mennonite Children's Home.  A full description and picture of the original house is in the architectural collection at the Smithsonian Institution and is a prime example of Victorian Architecture.

Aunt Sallie, as Mrs. Payne was known, made calico shirts for their Indian neighbors, who had tepees where the library now stands, and stomped their war dances on ground that was to become Clopper field."      Submitted by Lucille Blake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Contact the History Webmaster - Patricia Adams

History Site created on December 02, 2002
Page last updated: 02-Jan-2012