“OKLAHOMA PAYNE” (CAPT. D. L. PAYNE), THE CIMARRON SCOUT.
David L. Payne, known throughout the West as Captain Payne, of the Oklahoma Colony Company, was born in Grant County, Indiana, December 30, 1836. In 1858, with his brother, he started West, intending to engage in the Mormon War, but reached there too late. He settled in Doniphan County, Texas. His commercial pursuits there not resulting in success he turned hunter, and so became thoroughly acquainted with the topography of the great Southwest. Afterward a scout, he was often engaged in that capacity by the Government and by private expeditions. In this way he became acquainted with Kit Carson, Wild Bill, Buffalo Bill, California Joe, General Custer, and others of national reputation.
During the Civil War he served as a private in the Fourth Regiment, which was afterward merged into the Tenth. In the fall of 1864 he was elected to the Kansas Legislature. Upon its adjournment he again enlisted, and his command was detailed for duty at Washington City. His service in the volunteer army covered a period of eight years, his last position being captain of Company H, Nineteenth Kansas Cavalry, from October, 1868, to October, 1869. During these eight years he held the positions of postmaster at Fort Leavenworth, member of the Legislature, and sergeant-at-arms of the Kansas Senate.
BRIGADIER-GENERAL GEORGE A. CUSTER.
At the close of the war Captain Payne returned to the life of the plains, and in the spring of 1868 he accompanied General Custer in an expedition against the Cheyennes, during which he, with two others, was detailed as special messenger to Fort Hays to secure assistance, and in that capacity encountered great dangers and privations.
In 1870 he removed to Sedgwick County, Kansas, near Wichita, and in the following year was again elected to the Legislature. In 1879 he became interested in a movement for the occupation and settlement of a district in the Indian Territory which is known as Oklahoma (beautiful land). In 1880 he organized a colony for the purpose of entering upon and settling these lands, but was stopped by a decision of Carl Schurz, then Secretary of the Interior, to the effect that these lands were open to settlement only to negroes or Indians. Owing to the arrest of Captain Payne by the United States authorities the colony disbanded.
However historians may differ as to the wisdom or legality of Captain Payne’s so-called Oklahoma invasion and the court’s decisions upon the subject, the fact remains that his name is held high in honor and esteem by the older citizens of the now flourishing Oklahoma—a monument to his forethought.