Sunday, February 12, 2023

Joe Carter of the L. E. Paynes

 I came across a previously unknown (to me) colored team in Knoxville.  The L.E. Paynes of 1885.

from Newspapers.com

I was taken by the mention of specific players in the article, namely Joe Carter.  I went to Ancestry.com to see if Mr. Carter was in the Knoxville City Directory of 1885.  He was, as was his father, Burrell Carter.

from Ancestry.com

What else could I learn about Mr. Carter?  Off to FamilySearch.org where I found him in the 1880 US Census.

from FamilySearch.org

It appears that Joe was born in about 1863 in Tennessee.


from FamilySearch.org

Maybe he was born in 1862.

In my quick search I found less info on Louis E. Payne.  He was the Supervising Examiner of Tennessee and North Carolina, working in the Pension Office.


from Newspapers.com


In my experience it is uncommon to find names of early African-American ball players and difficult to assemble any sort of decent research materials.  This time I was lucky.