Yitz, other chasidim from lita, like stolin, did have payos. Litvishe definitely had payos before the gezeros – look at pictures of litvishe gedolim from before the 1860s. Afterwards they dropped it or put it behind their ears, but most litvishe jews (maybe 70%) dropped it entirely. I’d venture that most of the gedolim did keep it however, including verifiable photos of the chofetz chaim, rav chaim brisker, rav elchonon vasserman, rav boruch ber, the alter of slabodka, rav chaim ozer, rav chaim shmulevitz, and many more. Other gedolim, like rav chatzkel, did not have payos.
Juxtaposing chabad and litvishe in this regard is inaccurate; chabad had vastly different minhagim despite being in close proximity. They wore streimels before the last rebbe, while stolin didn’t.