Dale C. Maley
The E.L. Payne plumbing business served Fairbury space customers for 30 decades. This organization served as a enterprise incubator with lots of Fairbury gentlemen finding out their craft, operating for E.L. Payne, and then starting off their own enterprises. Dale Dameron, Wade Harris, Henry Maurer, John Bushman, and John Dietiker all started out at the Payne store ahead of they quit to create their personal companies.
E.L. Payne was 1 of Fairbury’s early plumbers. The story of the Payne spouse and children commenced with the marriage of Jeptha Payne (1875-1935) and Martha T. Gentry (1866-1942). In 1895 in Temple Hill, Kentucky, they experienced a son they gave the alternatively unusual title of Elchard Levi Payne. When their son grew up, he preferred the nickname “Slender,” or he used his initials of E.L. Payne.
In the 1910 census, Elchard was 14 a long time outdated and lived with his mom and dad in Union, Kentucky. His occupation was a farm laborer on his father’s farm. Sometime just before 1918, Elchard moved from Kentucky to Fairbury. Numerous pioneer settlers relocated from the Kentucky area to Fairbury to farm.
In June of 1918, Fairbury farmer Elchard Payne was inducted into the U.S. Military for service in the infantry in Environment War I. He did his fundamental teaching at Camp Wheeler in Ga. Elchard landed in France in October of 1918, just a few of weeks right before the war ended. He served in the Army of Occupation in France until eventually he was discharged to Camp Grant in Rockford in May of 1919.
Elchard returned to Fairbury right after his army service. He joined the plumbing firm owned by George Armbruster. Elchard realized the plumbing trade doing the job for Mr. Armbruster.
In 1926, at the age of 31, Elchard married Velva Joan Travis of Fairbury. She was 36 several years of age. Elchard and Velva Payne had no children.
In 1933, at the age of 38, Elchard quit working for Mr. Armbruster and shaped his very own business termed E.L. Payne Plumbing & Heating. His new business enterprise was located at 210 E. Locust St., throughout the street from Sunken Park. Shoppers could call for company by inquiring the operator for the two-digit telephone range 20.
In 1938, bookkeeper Miss out on Lola Mary Weber resigned, and Miss Mary Eleanor Combes acknowledged the bookkeeper’s placement at E.L. Payne Plumbing.
Prior to 1949, Henry Maurer uncovered the electrician trade by performing at Payne Plumbing. In 1949, Henry give up and formed Maurer & Roth Electric with his son-in-regulation, Earl Roth. Their firm was found where by Dave’s Supermarket deliver part is today.
Elchard Payne experienced a sister named Nellie Beulah Payne. She married Paul Bowles in Kentucky. A person of their small children was Garnett Boyd Bowles.
In 1955, when Garnett Bowles was 26 a long time old, he resolved to travel from Kentucky to Fairbury to question his uncle Elchard for a task. On arriving in Fairbury, Garnett Bowles sat in Sunken Park for a although just before getting the courage to go into his uncle’s plumbing store throughout the road.
Personnel functioning in the E.L. Payne shop were being about all set to call the police due to the fact they believed the stranger in Sunken Park was casing the business to rob it. About that time, Garnett acquired the braveness to wander throughout the avenue into his uncle’s store and check with him for a career. Elchard Payne gave his nephew Garnett Bowles a work.
Mr. Walter Runyon also worked for E.L. Payne. In 1955, Walter quit and moved his spouse and a few children to Dwight to function for R&M Plumbing Co.
By 1955, Payne Plumbing & Heating had prolonged its merchandise line to involve RCA televisions.
In 1957, Payne Plumbing used seven plumbers. These seven Fairbury plumbers were being Monthly bill Weber, Homer Ford, Dale Dameron, Wade Harris, Hartzell Cox, John Bushman and Garnett Bowles.
At the time a week, just about every worker of E.L. Payne experienced to acquire a change sweeping up the shop. The good thing is, there was a hole in the floor, so the plumbers just swept the dust down the gap. A few of periods a calendar year, E.L. Payne would send the newest employee down to thoroughly clean up the basement flooring. The new personnel ended up stunned to locate a excellent cone-formed dust pile achieving from the basement ground up to the gap on the to start with flooring!
By 1963, E.L. Payne was 68 several years aged. He determined to retire and promote the plumbing business to 1 of his plumbers, Bill Weber. Other personnel at E.L. Payne Plumbing around the decades integrated John Dietiker, Alf Ferguson, Bill Bartlett, Dean Gerdes, Bob Schmidt and Jim Wills.
In 1964, Dale Dameron and Wade Harris stop doing work for the E.L. Payne plumbing store, and they formed a new enterprise named D&H Plumbing & Heating Shop. “D” was for Dameron, and “H” was for Harris. Dale Dameron took over total ownership in a couple of decades and modified the firm’s title to Dameron Plumbing & Heating. Wade Harris continued to work as a plumber right up until he retired from that business.
John Bushman begun at the E.L. Payne plumbing shop but give up and went into business by himself as a plumber. John Dietiker also started out at E.L. Payne’s shop ahead of he left and set up his own organization in Pontiac.
In 1975, Elchard Levi Payne died at the age of 80. He was buried in Fairbury’s Graceland Cemetery. One month later, Mrs. Payne died and was buried in Graceland Cemetery.
Over the subsequent a long time, the main plumbers who labored for E.L. Payne progressively died out. Homer Ford died in 1982. Garnett Bowles, the nephew of E.L. Payne, died in 1989. Wade Harris died in 1993, and William Weber died in 1996. John Dietiker passed away in 2015, and Dale Dameron died in 2017.
