Jessie Louise Payne was born January 19, 1859 in Catlin, Illinois to Hamilton and Mary Helen Guymon Payne.

She taught school for a time and then married John Redmond who was 8 years older than she.

Jessie and John lived in the house that her parents had owned. It was built by her maternal grandparents, Noah and Lury Guymon. Within three years of their marriage Jessie's father, Hamilton Montgomery Payne left her mother.

Jessie spent months at a time on the farm without John. A newspaper article mentions that he was gone for 15 months.