The following article is part of the Diamond Club Member group that began in the January 7, 1943, issue of the Rock County Star Herald. Members of this group consist of persons of age 75 and older.
This article is continued from last week about David E. Payne, one of Luverne’s pioneer presidents. The article appeared in the April 15, 1943, edition of The Rock County Star Herald.
While in North Dakota, he (David Payne) helped break the prairie with oxen. He would leave them on the field and would haul water to them with a team. Many a time, he said, he would arrive there in the morning to see antelope drinking out of the watering tank.
In 1890, he landed in Adrian. He had friends from Wisconsin living in that community, so he decided he’d pay them a visit. He liked the country and obtained work, so he stayed. About 1903, he began farming for himself in Magnolia township on section 11. Later he farmed in sections 12, one and two, in Magnolia township and moved to the north half of section 36 in Vienna township, where he lived for five years. He farmed also in Springwater township one year on what was known as the Crawford place, but at that time, there were no roads, and being so far from town, he moved back to the Luverne community.
He sold out shortly after the last war, and he put his profits in a “good safe place like a bank.” That, he states, was one of the most foolish things he ever did in his life, because he lost it well soon after.
He continued to farm around Luverne until five years ago when he was going to help a neighbor cut some wood. He took his rifle with him, and it accidentally discharged, the shot going through his right hand. Since then, he has been unable to use his hand but little.
He moved to Luverne, and built himself a small home on a lot on W. Lincoln street and still lives there. He raises a garden but otherwise does not do a great deal of work “because of doctor’s orders.”
“I claim work never hurt me, but the doctor says it maybe hasn’t before but it might now, so I suppose I’d better listen to him,” Payne says.
Mr. Payne was never married, and says it’s a good thing that he never was. “I’m lucky I didn’t have a big wife and small family,” he states.
After working at many different jobs for 67 years, Mr. Payne should be a pretty fair authority on what hard work is. He believes that the hardest work he ever did was threshing from stacks in the days of dawn-til-dusk threshing with big rigs. On a number of occasions, he together with three other men pitched 16 stacks averaging seven loads of bundles each into a threshing machine in one day. That is an average of 28 loads each and any thresher will agree that pitching 28 loads of bundles is no snap.
Mr. Payne follows with considerable interest the war news of the day. He has a personal interest in it in that a nephew, his namesake, went down with the “Reuben James” at the time it was sunk. Although he never served in the United States army, it wasn’t because he didn’t want to, he states. He tried to enlist at the time of the Spanish-American war, “but they told me I didn’t weigh enough for my height.”
Of a family of eight children, Mr. Payne is one of three still living. He has one brother, John, who lives in Vancouver, Wash., and a sister, Mrs. Ellen Baird, who lives at Neenah-Menasha, Wis.
He attributes his long life to hard work and to regular habits. “I have always gone to bed on time and have gotten up on time,” he declares, “and I always eat regularly.”
Donations to the Rock County Historical Society can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society, 312 E. Main Street, Luverne, MN 56156.
Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.