DR. MARTIN PAYNE. – This Oregon-made man of worth and note was born September 14, 1838, in Crawford county, Arkansas, and is the son of Clayburne and Miriam Somner Payne. On April 17, 1843, the family set out for Oregon, joining the emigration of that year under Applegate and Burnett, and with the guidance of Doctor Whitman. On the Rocky Mountains the father died; and the mother was compelled to care for her little family by herself the rest of the journey. She secured kind assistance from her companions; and particularly was Doctor Whitman careful to see that she was provided with food. At Fort Vancouver she was also liberally supplied by Doctor McLoughlin.
Arriving in Oregon City October 11th, that place became the abiding place of the family until a journey to California was performed by land in 1845. Returning to Oregon the next year, they bid good-bye upon the commencement of their journey to the grandfather, G. F. Somner, who returned East.
As young Payne grew up in the valley, he received his education there, and in 1855-56 served as volunteer in the Indian war, belonging to Company E., Captain A. Hembree. A part of the time he was with Colonel Cornelius, being at the camp at Palouse Falls when the command was fed for thirty days on horse meat from a band captured by Cornelius from the Indians. He was also in the Yakima country when Hembree was killed.
After the war he returned to the Willamette valley, and made his residence in Yamhill county, near the home of his uncle, Thomas Shadden. Of late years he has resided in Portland, practicing his profession as a physician. A frequent tourist, he has spent quite a portion of his time in California, at San Diego and other points, but on the whole prefers Oregon as a home. His mother is still living at her home in Yamhill county, and enjoys good health. A brother, also, Jasper Payne, is living in our state.
The Doctor was married August 12, 1858, to Miss Melissa Ellen Drury, of Illinois, who came to Oregon in 1852. They have five children, – Clay, William Amon, Rod. K., Wells Drury and Rebecca Ellen. The Doctor has been a medical practitioner for more than twenty years.