Many Fairbury citizens collect antique glass bottles from various drug stores and dairies.
Bottles from the Payne and Milne drug stores are relatively rare. The story of these drugstores started with George Milne's birth in 1846 in Manchester, England. When George was four years old, his family emigrated from England to the Morrison, Illinois, area. The village of Morrison is 60 miles southeast of Galena, Illinois.
In 1865, George E. Milne married Hettie Sheldon Stowell. Hettie was 22 years old and was from Sharon, Illinois. The village of Sharon is a small town near Vandalia, Illinois. George was 18 years old when he got married. George and Hettie Milne had eight children. The George and Hettie Milne family lived in Morrison, Illinois. George became a grocer.
In 1878, George and Hettie Milne had a son named George Edmund Milne in Morrison, Illinois. In the 1900 U.S. Census, George E. Milne was 22 years old and was still living with his parents. George E. Milne reported that his occupation was apprentice pharmacist.
Around 1901, when George was 23 years old, he started attending the Northwestern School of Pharmacy in Chicago. The School of Pharmacy was established in Chicago in 1886 with 62 students. It ceased operation after the 1916-17 academic year with only 62 students. George E. Milne graduated from the School of Pharmacy in 1903. There were 64 graduates in the 1903 Pharmacy class.
Martin Van Buren Payne was born in 1843 in Monroe County, Indiana. He married Katherine Ursula Ulmer in 1868 when he was 24 and she was 18. Ursula was born in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany. Martin and Ursula Payne had 11 children. Mr. Payne farmed in the Arrowsmith area.
In 1883, the Martin Payne family moved from Arrowsmith to a farm five miles southwest of Fairbury. In 1885, Martin and Ursula Payne moved to a house in Fairbury. One of Payne's eleven children was Charles E. Payne, who was born in 1869 in Saybrook. Charles Payne quickly became one of the most respected businessmen in Fairbury. He invested in real estate and several businesses in Fairbury.
In 1895, Charles Payne was 26 years old. In October of that year, the Blade reported that Charles Payne and Emer Hemphill had purchased the H. J. Ramsey drug store at the northeast corner of Second and Locust Streets. They renamed the company Payne & Hemphill.
In January 1899, the partnership of Payne and Hemphill was ended. Charles E. Payne and his brother Oliver Payne opened a new drug store in the Peter Laubenheimer building. The new firm was named the Payne Bros. drug store. Both Charles and Oliver Payne were registered pharmacists.
In February 1899, the Blade extensively described the new Payne Bros. drug store at Second and Main Streets. In addition to drugs, the new company sold books, stationery, musical instruments, pianos, and organs.
In 1903, Martin Payne hired George E. Milne to work as a druggist in the Payne Bros. drugstore in Fairbury. Twenty-five-year-old George Milne quickly learned the Payne brothers had a 22-year-old sister named Viola Laven Payne. George E. Milne announced he was marrying Viola Lavern Payne two years after he moved to Fairbury. When they married in 1905, George was 27, and Viola was 24. They lived in a house on Oak Street.
Unfortunately, in 1906, Martin Payne was killed in Walkerton, Indiana, when he was run over by a freight train operating in reverse. Mr. Martin had been visiting relatives of his mother in the Walkerton area.
Both Charles and Oliver Payne died at relatively young ages. Oliver Payne died in 1908 and was only 33 years old. Charles Payne died in 1913 at the age of 43. When Oliver Payne died, George E. Milne took over the drugstore and renamed it the G. E. Milne Corner Drug Store. In the 1910 Census, Charles Payne reported returning to his real estate business. In that same Census, George and Viola Milne were still living on Oak Street, and he was operating the drugstore.
In November 1912, George E. Milne sold his drugstore to L. B. Decker, who had worked there for several years. George and Viola Milne then moved to Dixon, Illinois, where George continued to be a druggist.
In the 1920 Census, George was 42, and his wife Viola was 39 years of age. They lived in Dixon, Illinois, and George was still a druggist.
In the 1930 Census, George and Viola Milne had moved from Dixon to Mattoon, Illinois. George became a district manager for the Illinois State Employment Service. Near the end of his working career, George operated the Outdoor Advertising Agency in Mattoon.
George E. Milne died in 1961 at the age of 83. He was interred in the mausoleum at the Park Hill Cemetery in Bloomington by Miller Park. Viola Milne lived to be 89 and died in 1963. She was buried next to her husband in the mausoleum at the Park Hill Cemetery. George and Viola never had any children.
Milne is a relatively unusual name. Several Fairbury citizens have speculated that George E. Milne, the druggist, was related to the Milne family that operated two greenhouses. Genealogical research found that George E. Milne's ancestors came from England, while the ancestors of the Milne greenhouse family came from Scotland. George E. Milne, the druggist, was not closely related to the Milne greenhouse family.
Glass bottles found today from the Payne & Hemphill drugstore were likely manufactured between 1895 and 1899. Bottles from the Payne Bros. drugstore date back to the 1899 to 1908 era. Glass containers from the G. E. Milne drugstore were made between 1908 and 1912.
(Dale Maley's weekly history article is sponsored by Dr. Charlene Aaron)
