On the evening of Wednesday, September 11, 1907, the front page of the Pocatello Tribune led with a death at Idaho Falls. Randolph F. Payne, a druggist there, had taken his own life the night before. The report ended with a line about Bannock Valley: a brother "owns a ranch and keeps a general store at Arbon, on Bannock creek, about 30 miles from Pocatello, and word was taken to him last night of the tragedy."
The paper did not name the brother. He was almost certainly John Henry Payne, one of Arbon's early settlers, whose story is told in John Payne, Arbon's unofficial mayor.
What the paper reported
The Tribune's special report from Idaho Falls said Payne had shot himself at 9:15 on the night of September 10 in the family's rooms above his drug store. It gave domestic trouble as the cause. His wife, her eight-year-old son and her sister were in the next room. The paper called him popular in business and in society, a Knight Templar and an Odd Fellow. A coroner's inquest was set for 7 o'clock that Wednesday evening, and the Masons were to hold the funeral on Friday afternoon. The full article is printed below. Nothing read for this post reports the inquest's finding or the funeral.
A second section, headed "Well Known Here," set out Payne's ties to Pocatello. As a boy of ten Randolph had worked for Dr. J. H. Bean in a drug store at Idaho Falls, and he had moved with Dr. Bean to Pocatello for some years before going back to Idaho Falls and opening his own business. His father, the paper said, was George Payne, "formerly roadmaster of the old Utah Northern out of Pocatello," and a brother-in-law, Hy. Storer, had been state treasurer.
Why the brother was John Payne
No record read for this post names John Payne as Randolph's brother, but the evidence points one way. John Payne is the only Payne known to have kept a store at Arbon in those years: in July 1909 the American Falls Press reported him home from Pocatello, "where he went after a load of supplies for his store," and in July 1910 the Tribune called him "John Payne, the Arbon merchant," driving home from Pocatello with a big wagon load of groceries. He was an old Oregon Short Line man, more than thirty-two years with the railroad by the Press's account in 1916, which fits a family headed by a railroad roadmaster. And the family tree gathered for this site from compiled genealogies gives John Henry Payne a father named George Payne, who died at Idaho Falls in 1920, a sister Elizabeth P. Storer and a brother Randolph F. Payne, who died in 1907 and is buried at Idaho Falls.
The ranch fits too. John Payne had filed on desert land at Arbon in 1901 and on a homestead in 1906, and his patent to the desert land had been issued in May 1907, four months before his brother's death. That fall the Press credited "John Paine" with the best wheat yield in the valley, told in Arbon's dry-farm harvest of 1907.
One detail does not agree. The Tribune said Randolph was born at Slaterville, Utah, "about 26 years ago," but the compiled record gives his birth year as 1872, which would have made him about thirty-five. The paper also said he had been in business for himself for ten years, which sits more easily with the older age.
The earliest word of the Payne store
The line about Arbon matters to the valley's history for another reason. The site's account of the first stores says the Paynes' country store, "Aunt Emmy's," was remembered from about 1907 but documented only from 1909. Aunt Emmy was very probably John's wife, Emily, a daughter of George Arbon, and the 1914 gazetteer lists the store under her name. This 1907 article is the earliest printed mention of the store found so far, and it bears out the family memory of a Payne store at Arbon by 1907. Within a few years the Paynes were also keeping travelers overnight at the Payne hotel.
The paper does not say how the news reached Arbon that night. The valley had no telephone line to town until December 1915.
On this site: the Arbon family, the Arbon area, and John Payne's own death in 1924, told among the valley's tragedies.
The article as printed
Pocatello Tribune, September 11, 1907, page 1. Transcribed from the page scan.
SAD SUICIDE IN SUNNYLAND
RANDOLPH E. PAYNE KILLS HIMSELF WHILE DESPONDENT OVER FAMILY TROUBLES
Prominent Druggist in Idaho Falls, Well and Favorably Known in Pocatello, Sends a Bullet Crashing Into His Brain.
Idaho Falls, Sept. 11.—(Special to the Tribune.)—Randolph F. Payne, a prominent druggist of this city, committed suicide at 9:15 o'clock last night by shooting himself in the left temple with a revolver. Domestic trouble is assigned as the cause. The body will be buried Friday. Payne was married about eight years ago and his married life has been anything but happy. It is believed that after a quarrel with Mrs. Payne last night he attempted to commit suicide by drinking poison, but in order to make sure of the work of self-destruction shot himself.
The tragedy occurred at the apartments of Mr. and Mrs. Payne above his drug store. Mrs. Payne and her 8-year-old son, and her sister, Mrs. Joe Hurst, were in an adjoining room. A lodger in the same building heard Payne calling for help and went to his assistance, but was met at the door by the two women who said Payne was all right. The lodger had just returned to his own room when a shot rang out. Payne died almost instantly. It is the belief of the lodger that Payne had first taken poison and then shot himself.
Payne was born in Slaterville, Utah, about 26 years ago. He has lived here for the past 23 years, and was very popular in business and in society. He conducted a prosperous drug store and was liked by all who knew him. On frequent occasions in the past it is said he attempted to commit suicide on account of family trouble.
Payne was a Knight Templar and Odd Fellow and the funeral will be held Friday afternoon from military hall under the auspices of the Masons.
A coroner's inquest will be held at 7 o'clock this evening.
Well Known Here.
Payne was well known in Pocatello. He worked for Dr. J. H. Bean in a drug store at Idaho Falls when he was ten years old and removed with Dr. Bean to Pocatello, working here for some years. He then returned to Idaho Falls and ten years ago entered business for himself, and has been prosperous ever since.
His father was George Payne, formerly roadmaster of the old Utah Northern out of Pocatello. A brother-in-law, Hy. Storer, was formerly state treasurer.
A brother owns a ranch and keeps a general store at Arbon, on Bannock creek, about 30 miles from Pocatello, and word was taken to him last night of the tragedy.