William Pierce Payne (1831-1921)

PAYNE, BROWN

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 7/1/2014 at 17:05:17

From Nevada Journal October 21, 1921

W. P. PAYNE PIONEER EDITOR CALLED BY DEATH

HAD BEEN RESIDENT OF NEVADA FOR NEARLY HALF A CENTURY

W. P. Payne, pioneer newspaper man of central Iowa, died at his home in this city this forenoon at 11 o'clock. Mr. Payne had been confined to his home since September 7, and his death was not unexpected, owing to his serious condition and his extreme age.

The funeral services will be held Sunday afternoon at 3:00 from the Methodist church, after which the body will be laid the rest in the Nevada cemetery.

Mr. Payne was widely known over the state owing to his long newspaper experience and his association with the library activities of the state. He had been identified with the Nevada Representative since 1882, when he with his son, W. G. Payne, purchased the plant of W. G. Gallup, now of Boone, and the association of the elder Mr. Payne in that plant has been continuous since.

William Pierce Payne, second son of Samuel and Juliaette Payne, was born near Rutland in Jefferson county, New York, December 22, 1831. He grew to young manhood in that county, attended the country school there and taught school for at time, after which he attended the New York State Normal school at Albany, from which he graduated in 1854.

Following his graduation from the normal school he took charge of the schools at Sacket's harbor on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario, where he remained for three years, after which he took up his studied at Tuft's college, near Boston from which he graduated two years later. He was then ordained in the ministry in the Universalist church and has has his first charge, the pastorate at Lynn, Mass.

It was during his pastorate at Lynn that he was united in marriage at Rutland on January 16, 1859, to Adaline M. Brown, she being a native of that neighborhood also and a graduate of the State Normal School at Albany. It was also during their residence at Lynn that their only son, William O. Payne, was born.

Finishing his work at Lynn in 1862 he went to Cambridgeport, where he attended lectures at Harvard for a year and from there went to Clinton, N. Y., where he became pastor of the Universalist church and also was connected with an Institute there as an instructor. He remained there for nine years and it was in 1872 that he moved to Nyack-on-the-Hudson where he remained for a couple of years.

It was in 1874 that Mr. and Mrs. Payne and their son came out to Iowa, locating at Mitchellville, where Mr. Payne took charge of the Mitchell seminary, a Universalist school, for a year.

In the spring of 1875 Mr. Payne was elected principal of the schools of Nevada and the removal of the family here was deferred until late in the fall, after then new school building was completed ready for occupancy. It was in early November that the school was opened and Mr. Payne and his family became citizens of Nevada.

With Mr. Payne as principal and Mrs. Payne as his assistant, the schools continued under their charge for five years, when Mr. Payne gave up that line of work and had his initiation in newspaper work for two years on the Republican at Boone.

In 1882 Mr. Payne returned to Nevada and bought the Representative with the editorship and publication of which paper he had been identified continuously since, until he was forced to give up active work by the weakening condition due to the infirmities incident to old age, which took him to his home and finally resulted in his death.

The paper was under the direct supervision of the Paynes until 1917 when the business was organized into a stock company, in which the Senior Payne retained an interest and continued to give his time and energy. At the time of the organization of the new company, W. O. Payne withdrew and has since been actively engaged in the editing and publication of the Forum, a political weekly of general circulation.

Of the ninety years of Mr. Payne's life he devoted over half of it to the interests of Nevada and Story county. Aside from the active work upon his newspaper in which he took a devoted interest, he spent much of his time and energy in later years in the interests of the Nevada Public Library, in which he took a wonderful personal interest and pride.

It was of his connection with the library work in Nevada that Mr. Payne made himself very close in the hearts of the people during his later years. In the years of his teaching Mr. Payne became identified with the library work and when there was a library board finally appointed, he was named as the first head and for over a score of years continued in that capacity. At the end of that period he considered that he had served his time and turned the presidency of the board over to another, but continued his work upon the board, and his activities in the interest of the institution that had been such an inspiration to him for years, continued to the end.

His interests in the library work were not confined to Nevada alone but for over twenty years he did not fail to attend the annual convention of the Library association of the state and was a familiar figure on the floors of those conventions.

In the death of Father Payne, Nevada and Story county mourns a splendid citizen and one who spent nearly half a century within the borders of the county devoting his every waking moment to something for the good of the community with which he had so closely identified himself.