Payne was born in Monroe County, Virginia (now West Virginia), on September 7, 1845 to Thomas Payne and Barsheba Ellison, both of whom were by then free from slavery. Thomas Payne, a cattle drover, died of smallpox when his only child, Cristopher, was two years old. Cristopher's mother, Barsheba, was taught to read and write by her father, the slave owner James Ellison and her enslaved mother Fanny who was freed upon the death of Ellison's wife according to his will. Christopher's mother, in turn, taught him to read and write at a very early age. Education would remain a guiding tenet of the Payne family.Simmons, William J., and Henry McNeal Turner. Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising. GM Rewell & Company, 1887. p368-373
