The many friends of Uncle Dick Payne were surprised to learn of his death during Sunday night. The previous day he had visied his son and though he seemed in usual health, complained of not feeling very well. This was the last seen of him alive. During Monday his son called at the house and found him lying dead in his bed. The open Bible and his spectacles were upon the table as he had left them upon retiring for the night, when he laid down to his last long sleep. Death had come without warning during his slumber, and he passed away gently and peacefully.
Richard Thornton Payne was born in Loudoun County, Va., March 28, 1828, was married Dec. 10, 1849 to Sarah A. Scrivner who preceded him to the heavenly land in 1891, and with whom he had lived for forty years. Mr. Payne was a great reader of the old family Bible and a member of the church since 1855. He leaves six children, one daughter who lives in Virginia, Mrs. Finley Hale, in Missouri; one son, Bruce, is a soldier in the Philippine Islands serving in the First Nebraska, and one son, F.E.
Payne, and two daughters, Mrs. A.A. Cooper and Mrs. Noah Harvey, at his late Nebraska home, and a host of friends to mourn his demise.
The funeral service was conducted by Rev. A.G. Blackwell at the New Virginia school house and the remains were followed to the cemetery by a large concourse of relatives and friends.