Cleora Mae Payne was born on July 16/17, 1874. She was the daughter of Silas Huntington and Ophelia (Butler) Payne. Cleora lived a very short life. Her tombstone seems to indicate that she lived just short of 6 months to be exact. She was born in Clio in Thetford Township, Genesee County, Michigan. She died and was buried there too. The records are conflicting. There is a death record for a Clara M Payne whose parents are Silas and Orpha Payne and it states that she died on January 17, 1879 at the age of 4 years and a few days shy of six months. This record comes from a Michigan Mortality Record which is a record that is kept to record deaths for the year preceding a census year. Cleora did not live long enough to be recorded in a federal census. The Mortality record seemed to indicate that she had Bronchitis /Croup. So there is little to tell about this little girl . Michigan does not have Official birth records yet at this time period. My first thought was that Silas and Ophelia may have had twins, Cleora and Clara in 1874 and Cleora died in 1875 and Clara died in 1879 but I can not find any records to indicate this. There is no Clara buried in the Thetford Payne cemetery plot. So I really had no luck clearing this up. The death entry for Clara is the third entry from the top.

Mortality Record for Genesee County, Michigan – 1880

Silas and Ophelia lost several children at a young age. They had a daughter whose name was Mary who was born in July 26, 1851 and died two months later on October 2, 1851. Ida Jane was born on August 6, 1862 and died on August 28, 1862 at the age of 22 days. A daughter, Julie Ann, was born on December 23,1860 and died in January 16, 1869. On July 29, 1858, their son, Nathan was born and he died unmarried at the age of 35 on March 5, 1894 when a tree fell on him.

May all the Payne family members buried in Thetford Cemetery “ rest in peace “ !

Love , Jan

Cleora, Mary, Julie Ann, Ida and Nathan are all first cousins four time removed.