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Dr. Daniel Payton arrived in Salem, Oregon in 1865, where he helped to organize
the medical department of Willamette University in 1866, taking
the chair of Therapeutics, afterwards Obstetrics and Diseases
of Woman and Children. He held that position for thirteen
years and received the honorary distinction of Professor Emeritus.
From 1874 and 1875 he was dean of the medical school at Willamette
University. Meanwhile, he also served as director of the Salem
public schools for twelve years, Mayor of Salem for one term,
and Representative of Marion County in the Oregon State Legislature
for one term.
His wife, Elizabeth, traveled with him to Oregon. They had
married in Missouri in 1847. His wife, Elizabeth died in Salem
in 1878, leaving the four surviving children out of five born
during the marriage. He remarried in 1882 in Douglas County,
Oregon to Mrs. Henrietta Stemmerman. Dr. Payton and his second
wife were, for a short time, proprietors of the Snowden Springs
in Douglas County. Henrietta Stemmerman Payton would remain
with him to the end of his life.
Dr. Payton was born in Alabama in 1827 but was reared in
Missouri. He came from a family with longevity. The grandfather,
who was named Daniel, of Kentucky was a planter lived to advanced
age. The father, with his family, moved to Missouri about
1834, and became a merchant in Kirksville, Adair County, Missouri.
The failure of the State Bank of Illinois in 1843 crippled
his resources. In his early years, Daniel Payton received
some education in the local subscription schools and afterwards
a more regular course in Winchester, Kentucky. When his father's
prospects were blighted by financial disaster, he engaged
in farm work for several years, and as soon as possible took
up the study of medicine. His preceptor was Dr. George W.
Hatton of Appanoose County, Iowa. Dr. Payton married in Missouri,
in 1847, to Miss Elizabeth Hatton, a native of the state,
sister of his medical preceptor and of Dr. J.B. Hatton, deceased.
He first practiced in Wayne County, Iowa, where he was elected
county treasurer and afterward county judge, without serious
interruption to his medical practice. In 1860, he appears
to have completed a medical course, presumably at the College
of Physicians and Surgeons in Keokuk, Iowa. He is said to
have held several positions of honor and trust in Iowa, and
probably practiced there until he set out for Oregon in 1862.
Traveling by ox and mule teams across the plains of Oregon
they were in a party of forty families taking five months
to reach eastern Oregon. It is likely that he was a member
of the Keokuk wagon-train of which Dr. Justin Millard was
the leader. Arriving in Union County on October 5, 1862, they
built a fort near LeGrand being the pioneers in that region.
Dr. Payton was one of the three commissioners appointed to
organize Union County. Union County was then part of old Wasco
County.
In 1865, Dr. Payton and his family moved to the capital city
of Salem, Oregon. He began his practice in Salem and was very
successful in his profession and enjoyed a large practice.
His move also involved organizing the medical department of
Willamette University in 1866. He first served as Chair of
Therapeutics, afterwards Obstetrics and Diseases of Woman
and Children. He held that position for thirteen years and
received the honorary distinction of Professor Emeritus. From
1874 and 1875, he was dean of the medical school at Willamette
University. In 1878, the Medical Department was moved to Portland,
Oregon. Payton retired from active teaching when the Medical
Department closed. The trustees of Willamette University recognized
his services in the following minutes:
"Dr. Payton was one of the principal founders of the
Medical Department of this University. During its entire history
he has held in it a professorship, and was for two years Dean
of the Faculty, and during all these years the medical school
and the University has had no friend more devoted, and more
faithful and more useful than he. The valuable services he
has rendered have often been at a personal sacrifice."
The year the Medical Department moved to Portland, his wife
Elizabeth died. He continued to conduct his medical practice
in Salem until 1883 and devoted his efforts to his newfound
speciality, gynecology. Desiring to perfect himself in his
chosen specialty of gynecology, he made three sojourns in
New York in 1882, 1886, and 1888, to follow the post-graduate
courses for physicians. He remarried in 1882 in Douglas County,
Oregon to Mrs. Henrietta (Lane) Stemmerman, born in New York,
a daughter of Joseph and Margaret (Huston) Lane, both deceased
at an advanced age. Dr. Payton and his second wife were, for
a short time, proprietors of the Snowden Springs in Douglas
County. Dr. Payton was a member of the Salem Freemasons, past
master in the order. He was a member of the Christian Church
in Iowa, and Vestryman in the St. Paul's Episcopal Church
in Salem.
In 1883, Dr. Daniel Payton moved to Stockton, California.
He resided at 302 Lindsay Street in Stockton. He served on
the City's Board of Health for two years, was a member of
the American Medical Association and San Joaquin County Medical
Society and was an honorary member of the State Medical Society
of Oregon. Dr. Daniel Payton died of apoplexy April 7, 1893
in Stockton, California at age 66. He was survived by his
brother Rev. John Payton, a Macon, Missouri clergyman of the
Methodist Episcopal Church South and a soldier of the Mexican-American
war. His wife, Henrietta survived him as well as four children
from his first marriage. The children were Bessie (Mrs. Edgar
Farrington) of Eugene, Oregon; Belle ( wife of Dr. A.C. Helm,
proprietor of the Oregon House) of Ashland, Oregon; Minnie
( Mrs. E.S. Suyland) of Stockton and John Eberly, M.D. of
Eugene, Oregon. Dr. Daniel Payton's son, Dr. John Eberly,
journeyed to Stockton and took his father's remains back to
Salem, Oregon for a Masonic funeral. Dr,. Daniel Payton was
buried on April 10, 1893, in the Salem Pioneer Cemetery. His
tombstone reads:
Thou art gone to the grave but we will not deplore thee,
Thou sorrows and darkness encompass the tomb,
The savior has passed through its portals before thee,
And the lamp of his love is thy guide through the gloom
Compiled by Monica Mersinger
Bibliography:
Larsell, Olaf, The Doctor in Oregon, Binford and Mort,
1947
Gatke, Robert Moulton, Chronicles of Willamette; the Pioneer
University of the West, Binford and Mort, 1943, p. 339 and
348, also cite #138, Trustee Minutes, p. 48, p. 402
Hughes, Joanne J., collected 1850 census information, Wayne
County, Iowa
Tinkham, George H., History of San Joaquin County, page 662
and 663, publisher and date unknown
Dr. Payton Dead, Stockton California newspaper clipping,
date cica 1893, provided by Joanne J. Hughes
Salem Pioneer Cemetery web-site: www.open.org/~pioneerc/pb34.
2004 Burial Details of Dr. Daniel Payton
St. Paul's Episcopal Church of Salem: A Chronicle of Parish
Life, 1853-2003, Salem Public Library, 2004
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