A Weird Coincidence?

[L Verge]

We did check and find Lloyd Paine/Payne listed as a blacksmith, which caused us to wonder if he worked in the Surratts' blacksmith shop, which sat across Piscataway Road from their livery stable. We found no answer, and there is a Huntt family story about Mrs. Surratt using the blacksmith shop in T.B. after the one here closed down after her husband's death in 1862. That would not confirm the listing in the 1860 census as putting Payne here, but it is a possibility.

BTW: A gas station now stands where the Surratts' livery stable was, and a 7-11 is on the blacksmith's corner. We do have a photo of the blacksmith shop when it is literally standing only because the termites are holding hands! Ca. 1920.