Jason E. Payne Biography

	This biography appears on pages 720-721 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.

	This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside
	a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at

	http://www.usgwarchives.net/sd/sdfiles.htm


	HON. JASON E. PAYNE.-Among the native sons of the state who have 
attained prestige and success in one of the most exacting and important 
of professions, that of the law, is Mr. Payne, who is engaged in the 
practice of his profession in the city of Vermillion, where he is also 
a member of the faculty of the College of Law at the University of 
South Dakota. 

	Jason Elihu Payne was born on the homestead farm in Clay county, 
this state, on the 22d of January, 1874, and is a scion of one of the 
early pioneer families of the county. His parents were Byron S. and 
Charlotte E. (Woodworth) Payne, the former a native of Michigan and the 
latter of Wisconsin, though both living in Clay county, this state, at 
the time of their marriage. while they still remain on their valuable 
farm in this county. The subject received his early education in the 
district school near his home, and after completing the curriculum of 
the public schools entered the State University of South Dakota, at 
Vermillion, where he was graduated in 1894, receiving the degree of 
Bachelor of Arts. In the following year he began reading law under the 
direction of ex-Governor A. C. Mellette, of this state, who was at that 
time residing in Pittsburg, Kansas, and thereafter continued his 
technical reading under the preceptorship of E. M. Kelsey, of 
Vermillion, during the year 1896, while in 1897-8 he was a student in 
the College of Law of the University of Minnesota, in the city of 
Minneapolis, being admitted to the bar of his native state in October 
of the latter year. He began the practice of his profession in 
Vermillion on the 1st of January, 1901, and has already built up an 
excellent business, retaining a representative clientage. He is 
specially well grounded in the science of jurisprudence, so that his 
preferment as assistant professor of law in the College of Law of the 
State University was consistently accorded, his appointment to the 
position having been made in September, 1903. In politics Mr. Payne 
gives an unqualified allegiance to the Republican party, and is one of 
the most prominent of the younger workers in its ranks in the state, 
while in 1902 he was elected to represent his district in the state 
senate, serving with marked ability as a member of this body during the 
eighth general assembly, while his term will expire in the present 
year, 1904. Mr. Payne is popular in professional, business and social 
circles and is well known throughout his native county. He has not yet 
assumed connubial ties. 

	Mr. Payne met with serious misfortune on the 29th of August, 
1893, when, as the result of a runaway, he was thrown against a wire 
fence, his injuries being of such a serious nature as to necessitate 
the amputation of one arm.