Payton, the youngest of the four young mulatto Hancock slaves who considered themselves “brothers”, was born about 1840-1841 in Jackson County, Alabama, on the plantation of white John Allen Hancock. According to DNA Payton’s father was 60-year-old John Allen himself and an unidentified enslaved woman, possibly Susan or Daphney. An enslaved black female giving birth to a child fathered by a male in the master’s family was not uncommon in the South. When Payton was six years old, his white mistress Sarah Ryan Hancock died, and eight years later in 1855 his white master John Allen died without a will. All John Allen’s possessions were inventoried and sold, including his slaves. Judge John, youngest son of John Allen, came from Texas to purchase nine slaves, all of whom appear to be related to a slave, Salem, who was already with Judge John, and many were also related to Judge John. Among those nine slaves was 14 year-old Payton, Judge John’s half brother. Also purchased by Judge John were Rubin, Orange, Jemima, Dorcas and two children, Susan and Daphney. Payton grew up with “brothers” Rubin and Orange, “sisters” Jemima and Dorcas.
After a 900 mile journey, Payton and the other slaves were taken to the Judge’s land on Burnet Road and North Loop. There were five log cabins which housed the slaves located behind a bigger log house used by the overseer, James Doughtry, and occasionally the Judge’s two nephews, William and James Hancock, whom the Judge was rearing.
At the Judge’s farm, Payton would have worked with his “brothers”clearing land, planting and harvesting crops, tending livestock, and helping maintain the Upper Georgetown Road which ran nearby. The Judge had about 300 acres in cultivation and 20,000 unimproved. The slave houses were in a beautiful grove of oak trees not far from Shoal Creek. Judge John and his white wife Susan and their newborn son Edwin lived in town so the slaves would have been supervised by James Doughtry.
The Judge had a biracial son born about the time Payton arrived and a second soon after. All the slaves would have known when, in 1860, the Judge sent his two biracial sons and their mother, Eliza, to Ohio thus freeing them. That year Payton, then about 20 years old, fathered a daughter, Annie, with Delphia Hubbard. This was during slavery so Delphia and Annie would have belonged to another slaveowner. By the time freedom came in 1865, Payton had lost them.
Judge John’s slaves would have been very aware of the Civil War when Judge John encouraged his two nephews, William and James, whom he reared, to join a Union cavalry to fight against their Confederate neighbors. After freedom came in June, 1865, Payton and his three “brothers”had to figure out how to support their families. They were starting with no possessions but probably had temporary housing and paid work on the Judge’s land. By 1870, Payton had joined his brothers working for George Davis, a white landowner just north of Hancock’s farm. He lived in a cabin near brother Salem. By then Payton was married to Martha, a woman his age born in Tennessee. He had two daughters, Betty and Mary, and an infant son, Salem. Plus in his household was 60-year-old Nancy Peoples and 3-year-old Josephine Peoples. Apparently Martha died and in 1873, Payton married Elizabeth “Betsy” Boyd who already had a son, Thomas Hughes. She and Payton had no children.
In 1871, big “brother” Salem purchased 5 acres with a house on the west side of Burnet Road near the Davis farm from Harriet McKenzie. He soon purchased two other small tracts just across Burnet Road. In 1874, nine years after slavery, “brother” Orange purchased 100 uncleared acres north of Salem in the area called Duval paying half the $700 price in cash. He built a house himself and moved his family there.
In 1877, Payton became the third “brother” to buy land. He purchased 50 acres from R. A. Rutherford in the Applegate Survey along the Lower Georgetown Road (Lamar Blvd) near Little Walnut Creek. He paid $200 in cash and $550 more in promissory notes. Much of the land was probably cleared. Payton’s house was about a mile north of the new town of Fiskville which was centered at Payton Gin and Lamar Blvd. His land was north of and bordered on G. W. Corzine land. Corzine’s wife, Jemima Hancock, was related to Payton. In 1881 “brother” Rubin purchased a farm a few miles north of Payton though he apparently had been farming here for several years. “Sister” Dorcas Gregg purchased 12 acres on the east side of Rubin’s land, and just north of Rubin were the Peoples relatives. Payton’s land was connected to the Duval and Burnet Road farms of his “brothers”, Salem and Orange, by the Fiskville-Burditt Springs and Mill Road. Payton was surrounded by family.
The 1880 census recorded detailed information about agriculture. In 1880 Payton had 50 acres of tilled land and another 20 acres in pastures (he owned only 50 acres). His farm operation was valued at $1200 plus $26 in implements and $225 in livestock. The value of all his farm production was $500. Payton had 2 horses, 4 milk cows (but he produced no butter), 4 calves, 8 hogs, and 25 chickens which produced a very low 25 dozen eggs in 1879. His 15 acres in Indian corn produced 100 bushels, 10 acres in oats produced 220 bushels, and 1/2 acre in wheat 4 bushels. He also produced 15 bushels of peas and 4 of beans. This would have been in addition to a large kitchen garden needed to feed his wife, mother, and twelve children and step children.
In the 1880 census, 39-year-old Payton was living with his 28-year-old 2nd wife Betsy (Elizabeth Boyd), 14-year old daughter Betsy (Betty), 12-year old daughter Mary, 10-year-old son Salem, 12-year-old stepson Thomas Hughes, 50-year-old mother or step mother, Nancy Peoples with 9-year-old nephew Chas Peoples. The 1870 census says Nancy was born in Tennessee. John Allen and family were in Tennessee for a few years when moving from Virginia to Alabama and Judge John was educated there. The black Peoples family seems to have come to Travis County about 1863.
Because the black Peoples family is so intertwined with black Hancock families in Austin, their connections would be helpful to know. In what way were Anderson Peoples, Elizabeth Peoples (Rubin Hancock’s wife), and Nancy Peoples (Payton’s mother or step mother) related? Anderson, born in 1852 in Tennessee may have been Elizabeth’s younger brother or brother-in-law. Elizabeth also was born in Tennessee like Nancy Peoples. Elizabeth was born about 1846 and Nancy about 1810 or 1830, depending on which census is correct. Other colored Peoples were children Charles and Josephine, adults James, John, and Eliza Peoples (married Hill Jones).
In 1882 Payton bought 72 additional acres from Rutherford for $1080. Wife Elizabeth apparently died before 1884 and Payton married a third time to Annie Robinson. He and Annie had 7 children: Martha Ann, Payton Jr., Alice Lee, a son who died young in a fire, Hugh, Eugene, and Mary Elizabeth.
In 1891, Payton said goodbye to oldest daughter Bettie, husband Charlie Madison, and their three children as they struck out for the Oklahoma Territory by covered wagon. The trip took two months. They built a two-room log cabin on their 160 acres which they proved up after 10 years adding another six children to their family. Bettie remained in close contact with her Austin family. It was said by the family that Bettie, who lived to 91, was Seminole, Irish, and black.
Payton died in May 1908. He had witnessed his son Payton Jr.’s death in their home from a ruptured appendix just 6 months earlier. Payton left his land to wife Annie stipulating that she give $100 each to his three children by wife Elizabeth “Betsy”Boyd (Betty, Mary, and Salem). Payton also provided for Betsy’s son from an earlier marriage, Thomas Hughes. Payton’s son Eugene and maybe Salem probably died only a few years after their father. Eight years after Payton died, Annie borrowed against the land to pay debts. She also sold some of the land so she could move into town. Five of Payton’s children, all daughters, had children, and the Hancock last name ended here. Payton had 49 grandchildren, and most of his descendants live in Houston, Dallas, and Oklahoma.
Karen Sikes Collins, revised April 2025
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