Captain David L. Payne, is a veteran of the Civil War for whom Payne County, Oklahoma is named. Captain Payne is also known as the Father of Oklahoma and led several groups of settlers into the area of Indian Territory, now the site of Stillwater, Oklahoma. Payne served in the 10th Kansas Infantry Regiment during the war. A memorial has been erected over his burial site in Stillwater's Boomer Lake Park. The site is marked by the original gravestone erected by the James Shield Post #57 of the Grand Army of the Republic of Wellington, Kansas where he was originally buried.







Original Gravestone in Boomer Park
Note the GAR inscription at the top of the memorial as well as the map of Oklahoma showing the original boundaries of the "Unassigned Lands". David L. Payne, cousin of the Captain, wrote the new copy on the monument. (Photo by Walt Cross). Two Civil War cannon in Wellington Kansas are believed to be a part of the Captain's original monument.





What's A Jayhawker?
Merriam-Webster dictionary states: "The original Jayhawkers were raiders. That nom de guerre was used by antislavery guerrillas who raided Missouri and Kansas in the mid-1800s, during the era known as the Bleeding Kansas period. After the Civil War, the term referred to bands of outlaws who raided the West."

Jayhawking was a synonym for stealing, and Jayhawkers stole, burned, and murdered for the Union cause in the guerilla warfare that raged in the area before, during, and after the Civil War. Their Confederate counterparts were called Bushwhackers and were cut from nearly the same cloth as Jayhawkers.

Captain Payne was NOT a Jayhawker, but a member of a mustered Kansas regiment.

The Wellington Guns

Photo by Carol Cross
History of the guns
Recently I learned that two Civil War era cannon, assigned to the James Shield Post #57 of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) were originally thought to be a part of Captain Payne's memorial. I believe the cannon should be restored to Captain Payne's present memorial in Stillwater, Oklahoma. This photo was taken outside the Wellington, Kansas City Hall.



This is a GAR memorial medal, given to the next of kin of a deceased Union veteran.

David L. Payne was born near Fairmount, Indiana on December 30, 1836. He grew up on a farm and received his schooling from a rural school house. At the age of twenty-one he staked out a homestead in Doniphan County, in the north-east corner of Kansas. At the outbreak of the Civil War just three years later, he joined the army, serving in the 10th Kansas Infantry. After his initial service of three years, Payne was elected to the Kansas legislature, but soldiering was in his blood. After the session adjourned, he reentered the army, serving until the end of the war.

In 1868 he began service as a scout for the U.S. Army and was commissioned a captain in the 19th Kansas Cavalry, serving against the Plains tribes of Kiowas, Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Comanche Indians in the Oklahoma Territory. This regiment was commanded by Samuel J. Crawford who had resigned as governor of Kansas to lead the 19th. Finally, in 1870, Payne tried to settle down again, this time in Sedgwick County whose residents again sent him to the state legislature. Outside his state service not much is known of his life from 1872 to 1879. But somewhere along the way his restless and roving ways led him to join the movement to settle the Oklahoma country.


Boomers headed South to the Unassigned Lands.

He became the recognized leader of the "Boomers", the settlers who wanted the Oklahoma lands opened to them. "There was never such an opportunity offered to enterprising men." Payne stated, describing his proposed Oklahoma Colony. Many would-be settlers rallied to his call and followed him into the "Promised Land" that would become the State of Oklahoma.

Troopers of the 10th Cavalry's "Buffalo Soldiers" moved the group of settlers out of the territory on several ocassions. One of the last of these illegal incursions ended up on Stillwater Creek. This is now the site of the City of Stillwater, Oklahoma. A large monument now graces the intersection of highways 177 and 51 that reads "Stillwater, Where Oklahoma Began".

From 1879 to 1884 Payne was constantly organizing new colonies and leading them into the forbidden country claiming the homestead laws gave them the right to settle lands not assigned to any Indian tribe. In November of 1884 Payne died at the breakfast table, getting ready to lead another peaceful invasion of the Oklahoma Country.

But the Boomer movement could no longer be stopped and within days of his death, a bill was introduced into Congress for the purpose of authorizing the opening of Oklahoma to settlement. Payne's lieutenant, William L. Couch, continued to lead the Boomer movement. A park named for Couch is located on the south side of Stillwater. Payne County is named for David L. Payne. Titles and nicknames given to Payne include: The Father of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Moses, Prince Boomer, Cimmarron Scout, and Ox Heart among others. Payne is buried on the west side of the appropriately named, Boomer Lake Park in the city of Stillwater, Oklahoma.

It is fashionable in some historical quarters to dismiss Payne as an invader who deprived Native Americans of their homes. Historical facts do not bear this idea out. The Unassigned Lands were purchased from the Creek and Seminole Tribes more than a dozen years previous to Captain Payne's incursions. The tribes had already been resettled elsewhere. Captain Payne was then, and still is, the "Father of Oklahoma".

A Link to Captain David L. Payne Camp Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.

Civil War Unit Muster Roster Projects

27th Kentucky Union Infantry
37th KentuckyUnion Infantry
11th KYCasualties
9th KentuckyUnion Infantry
11th KentuckyUnion Infantry
23rd IowaUnion Infantry
11th Kentucky Alpha RosterUnion Infantry
3rd KentuckyUnion Cavalry
Co H, 1st Tenn CSA Infantry

Payne's Rifles
A link to the Last Union Soldier
A link to the Texas Commandery of MOLLUS.
A link to the Tulsa Civil War Roundtable