By David Dary

For The Transcript

David L. Payne was an adventurer, scout, soldier, politician, and a Boomer, someone who wanted to settle in Indian Territory, a region set aside only for Indians.

Many people call Payne the “Father of Oklahoma,” but others oppose the title because Payne died six years before Oklahoma Territory was formed in 1890 and because his

actions as a Boomer suggest he ignored the rule of law.

David Payne was born on a farm in Grant County, Indiana, on December 30, 1836, He attended a rural school near his home. In the spring of 1858 Payne and his brothers

left Indiana to fight in the Mormon War. As they headed west across Illinois and Missouri, David Payne’s desire to fight waned.

Crossing the Missouri River into Kansas Territory, David Payne found beautiful wooded country in Burr Oak Township, Doniphan County, in northeast Kansas. At age 22 he acquired some land and built a sawmill. His business, however, soon failed. He turned

to hunting wild game to survive. He became a good hunter and learned to read signs. Impressed with his skills, neighbors hired him to do their hunting. In time, the federal government hired him as a scout on several expeditions. One of them took Payne into what is now Oklahoma in the 1850s.

When the Civil War began, Payne enlisted in the 4th Kansas Volunteers created to protect settlers from Indians. In April 1862 Payne’s regiment was consolidated with another unit creating the 10th Kansas Infantry, which saw action in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Indian Territory. Payne and 386 other men in the 10th joined more than nine thousand other Union soldiers in the Army of the Frontier and fought in the Battle of Prairie Grove that secured northwest Arkansas for the Union.

Payne left the army in August 1864 and returned to Kansas where he was elected to the Kansas legislature serving in the 1864 and 1865 sessions. In March 1865 he joined for one year the 10th Kansas Cavalry organized by the legislature to protect settlers from Indians in western Kansas. After his year, he answered a call from Kansas Governor Samuel Crawford for volunteers to stop Indian attacks in Kansas. Payne was appointed a captain of company D of the 18th Kansas Cavalry.

In `1867, Payne became postmaster at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, but in the fall of 1868 he joined the army again. He became a lieutenant in the 15th Kansas Cavalry and served in the winter campaign against Indians during 1868 and ’69. For a time he served as a scout for General Philip Sheridan. When his tour ended in 1870, Payne moved to south central Kansas. A year later, he again was elected to the Kansas legislature. Later, in 1875 and 1879, Payne served as assistant to the Doorkeeper in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C.

There Payne became friends with Elias C. Boudinot, a Cherokee working as a lobbyist for the railroads who wanted to lay their tracks through Indian Territory. President Rutherford B. Hayes opposed white settlement in Indian Territory. He declared it was

unlawful white settlers to entry the territory. Hayes’ action gave supporter of white settlement a chance to rally.

Attracted to the movement, Payne returned to Kansas where he learned that another Boomer, Colonel C. C. Carpenter, had taken a party of settlers from Coffeyville, Kansas, into Indian Territory. After they reached the North Canadian River, soldiers escorted the group back to Kansas.