San Joaquin County
Biographies
DANIEL PAYTON, M. D.
DANIEL PAYTON, M. D.,
gynecologist, No. 302 Lindsay street, Stockton, California, was born in
Alabama, July 9, 1827, a son of A. C. and Elizabeth (Elledge) Payton, now
deceased. Longevity is marked in the Payton family. The grandfather, who was
named Daniel, of Kentucky, by occupation a planter, lived to an 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.
D. Payton, the subject of our sketch,
received some education in the local subscription schools and afterward a more
regular course in Winchester, Kentucky. When his father’s prospects were
blighted by financial disaster, he engaged in farm work for a few years, and as
soon as possible took up the study of medicine, his preceptor being Dr. George
W. Hatton of Appanoose County, Iowa. He first practiced in Wayne County, Iowa,
where he was elected county treasurer and afterward county judge, without serious
interruption to his medical practice, his official duties extending over a
period of four or five years, not requiring much of his time. He was formally
graduated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Keokuk, Iowa, in 1860,
and continued his practice in that State about two years longer,--in all twelve
years. In 1862 he moved with his family by ox and mule teams across the plains
to Oregon. The party comprised forty families, and they were five months on the
way. Arriving in Union County, October 5, 1862, they built a fort near Le
Grand, being the pioneers in that region, and Dr. Payton was one of the three
commissioners appointed to organize Union County. He removed to Salem, the
capital of Marion County, in 1865, and there helped to organize the medical
department of Willamette University in 1866, taking the chair of Therapeutics,
afterwards Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children. He held that position
thirteen years and received the honorary distinction of Professor Emeritus at
the close of his connection with the institution. Meanwhile he had served as a
director of the public schools twelve years, mayor of the city one term, and
representative of Marion County in the State Legislature one term. 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, polyclinic and
Bellevue courses for physicians. After these three terms of attendance at the
best lectures and demonstrations available on this continent, and a general
practice of forty years, he devotes his attention almost exclusively to
gynecology, which is among the most useful, necessary and humanitarian of
medical specialties. Dr. Payton settled in this city in 1883, recognizing in
its natural advantages the destiny of a great center of population. He has
served in this city as President of the Board of Health two years, declining a
re-appointment. He is a member of the American Medical Association, of the San
Joaquin County Medical Society and an honorary member of the State Medical
Society of Oregon. He has one brother living in Macon, Missouri, the Rev. John
Payton, a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and a soldier of
the Mexican war.
Dr. Payton was married in Missouri, in
1847, to Miss Elizabeth Hatton, a native of that State, a sister of his medical
preceptor and of Dr. J. B. Hatton, deceased. She died in Salem, Oregon, in
1878, leaving five children, one of whom has since died. The four living
children are: John Eberly, M. D., a physician of established reputation in
Eugene City, Oregon; Bessie, now Mrs. Edgar Farrington of that city; Belle, the
wife of Dr. A. C. Helm, proprietor of the Oregon House in Ashland, Oregon;
Minnie, now Mrs. E. S. Suyland of Stockton. The Doctor has nine grandchildren
and one great-grandchild. He was again married in Douglass County, Oregon, in
1882, to Mrs. Henrietta (Lane) Stemmerman, born in New York, a daughter of
Joseph and Margaret (Huston) Lane, both deceased at an advanced age. The grandfather
Huston and his wife (nee Burton), also lived to an advanced age.
Dr. Payton is a member of Salem Lodge, No.
4, F. and A. M., and past master in the order, which he joined in Appanoose
County, Iowa, nearly forty years ago. He has been a member of the “Christian”
Church since 1850, joining in Wayne County, Iowa, and was an elder of the
church in that State.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 662-663. Lewis Pub.
Co. Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
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Biographies
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