The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-12-23
HE KNEW HIN WE'LL
Ex-Governor Crawford Tells
About Dave Payne
THEY FOUGHT TOGETHER
WAS a Man the Like of Whom
Has Never Been Born.
THEY FOUGHT TOGETHER

] Z
ford. ex-governor Of Kansas. who was
the lifelong friend of Captain David L.
PAYNE. To have a man like Governor
Crawford as an intimate was a great
privilege; 70 have him as friend was a
! blessing; for Kansas has produced few
| men, if any, possessed Of a grander and
more heroic character than the soldier
governor of the sunAower state. In an
swer to a request made upon the govern
OF for a few lines on the great Oklahoma
boomer he writes as follows:
Having been requested TO contribute
/ such information as possess relative to
( the life, character and public services
Of Captain David L. Payne, know Of
no better way of so doing than through
| the columns of the Eagle. There was only
| one David L Payne. He was man, the
! like Of whom, has never been born, and
/ the like Of whom, We never shall see
| again. I knew him well as a citizen, a
soldier. and Rough Rider over the fer
tile plains Of what are now the golden
( fields Of Oklahoma I knew him as a
sergeant in the Tenth Kansas, during the
/ civil war. and a member Of the Kansas
! legislature in 1855. knew him as a
! farmer, living in a cabin in Doniphan
] county, and as a trapper and hunter, liv
] ing in a dug-out in the southwest.
ST sent him to the frontier settlements
! Of Kansas in 1867, as captain of a troop,
in a battalion Of cavalry, to protect the
! settlers against hostile Indians. I took
! him with me as a captain in the Nine
/ tenth Kansas cavalry on an expedition,
]
/ dams during the fail and winter Of 1852.
| through the western and southwestern
| parts Of what is now Oklahoma territory.
I often advised with him, or rather he
with me, in regard to the title Of the
! lands, in what ne called Oklahoma, and
the possibility of his securing footing
/ for himself and his devoted followers.
| Hence L knew him and his peculiar char
/ acteristics, and like other friends, I some
/ times accommodated him with small
sums Of money. which he in turn would
! generously hand to the first person he
found in need In fact he has been
/ known to borrow from one friend and
60 straight to another and solicit the
privilege Of lOaning to him.
He was lion-hearted, romantic man
moved by impulse, or as he called 1t, by
the spur of the moment. He would act
and let the consequences take care Of
themselves. Generally, but not always,
he had a fixed purpose in view. He was a
good soldier. and in many ways, a true,
faithful, devoted friend Had he lived to
witness the complete accomplishment of
the work upon which his heart was set
the opening Of Oklahoma to settlement
l7a vg7frr7+ how -ae41oys z----.
fruits Of his labor. but the chances are
that peace ere long woulo have troubled
his mind. His restless spirit would have
moved him in search of other worlds to
conquer He was a fine specimen Of
physical raanhood-six feet four, and built
in proportion. He took little interest in
small things. Even Oklahoma-laree and
majestic as she is-would soon have be-
come small and tame in his estimation.
Nothing less than an ocean bound re-
public with our flag and lines pushed to
the Arctic on the north and TO the 18TH
mus on the south, would have satisfied
his ambition. And there are some other
devoted American citizens who believe
that when It becomes necessary to ex-
pand. that those points should be our OBJ
jectve points. rather than for US to pre-
maturely dump seventy thousand gallant
young Americans, and five hundred mill
ions Of money into the jungle Of dis
eased, stricken islands. away off on the
other side Of the globe.
Payne was not grasping. nor ambi-
tious per Sc but lofty in his ideas and ro-
mantle in his disposition. Had he been
seeking a footing; entangIing alliances in
+f,., e1- story, T,1~,-fe-1,1--.