Ivan Carter Payne

Autobiography of Ivan Carter Payne up to 1977 PERSONAL RECORD Name in full: Ivan Carter Payne Father’s name: Harry M Payne Mother’s maiden name: Ruth Curtis When born: 4 December 1905 Where born: Colonia Dublan, Chihuahua, Mexico When blessed: 7 January 1906 When baptized: 30 May 1914 Where baptized: La Mesa, Dona Ana County, New Mexico Baptized by: Harry M Payne When confirmed: 30 May 1914. By whom: Harry M. Payne Priesthood ordinations: OfficeDeaconBy whomHarry M PayneDate 13 January 1918 Office Teacher“Junius E PayneDate 9 January 1921 Office Priest“Leslie B PayneDate 6 January 1924 Office Elder“Harry M PayneDate 14 February 1926 Office High Priest“Apostle Richard R. LymanDate 30 October 1938 Office Bishop“Apostle George Q. MorrisDate 2 March 1958 Office Patriarch“Apostle Richard L. EvansDate 24 November 1968 Married to Elva Lavon PeckDate: 20 February 1929 Where married: Salt Lake Temple in S.L.C. by Apostle George F. Richards Where endowedSalt Lake TempleDate October 2 1926 Where sealedSalt Lake TempleDate 20 February 1929 To WhomElva LaVon Peck (Wife) Patriarchal blessing byCharles PulsiferDate 17 November 1907 Departed for mission to Central States MissionDate 7 October 1926 When returnedDecember 1928 Special appointments: My wife and I filled a mission in the Alabama-Florida Mission. We entered the mission home 21 October, 1972. We were set apart for our mission 18 October 1972 by Pres. Robert H.M. Killpack, and released May 11, 1974. IMPORTANT EVENTS I first attended school in Dublan, Mexico. The next summer, July 1912, my family with the rest of the community were driven out of Mexico. We landed in El Paso, Texas. We were there for two months, then moved to Aurora, Utah, then to Richfield, Utah. I went to school in both places. About a year later we moved to New Mexico, on the Rio Grande River, where we farmed for several years. I went to school in Berino, La Mesa and Chamberino, New Mexico. The fall of 1916 we moved to Virden, New Mexico where I lived until after we were married. I went to school there and graduated from high school at Gila Jr. College at Thatcher, Arizona. After we were married I returned and attended one year of college there. Sickness overtook us and we moved to Idaho near my wife’s folks. Both of our children were born in Arizona while there (Reed and Ann). We moved to Shelley, Idaho where we spent fifteen years. I was in the bishopric there for eight years. In 1949 we moved to Yuba City, California and stayed the summer. Then we moved to Salt Lake City. While in Salt Lake I entered the vocational school and studied electrical wiring. I worked at this trade for some time, then we went to Roosevelt, Utah to manage a Farmer’s Co-op. We were there a year and moved back to Murray, Utah where we spent our lives until we went on our mission to Florida. We sold our home when we went on our mission and when we returned, inflation had bitten us badly. We decided to put our money with our daughter and son-in-law and build us an apartment with them. While in Murray I was bishop for five and a half years, then a stake high councilman for four years, then our stake was divided. I became the patriarch for the next four years before going on our mission. All together I have spent twenty years in the bishopric and high council. Then four years as patriarch and was sustained recently on October 26, 1975 as patriarch in the East Brunswick Stake of Zion. We have aided and encouraged our children to receive an education. Both our son and daughter are very accomplished musicians on the piano and organ. Our son Reed is a professor at Brigham Young University. Our daughter’s husband, William Park is a professor at Rutgers University. I have met many of the apostles and am a personal friend of our church president, Spencer W. Kimball, having been raised in the same Stake as he. He was once a counselor to my brother in our stake presidency. Music has been a hobby of mine. I took music in high school. I played a saxophone in a dance band for several years. I have been Sunday school chorister and have directed ward choirs for several years. We have done endowment work in the following temples: Provo, Salt Lake, Logan, Idaho Falls, Manti, St. George, Oakland, Arizona, and Washington. My church positions have been: •Sunday school teacher •Counselor in the Sunday school •Genealogy teacher •Sunday school chorister •Explorer leader •Ward teacher •Home teacher •General Secretary of Aaronic Priesthood •Gen. Sec. of Senior Aaronic Priesthood •Ward choir director •1st counselor in bishopric (twice) •2nd counselor in bishopric (twice) •Stake High Priest Secretary •Bishop •High counselor (set apart by Joseph Fielding Smith) •High Priest group leader •Patriarch •Two regular missions and two stake missions Missions include the following: •Central States Mission, 7 October, 1926 to December, 1928 •Stake Mission, Shelley Stake, 1947-1949 •Stake Mission, Gridley Stake, 1949-1949 •Alabama-Florida Mission, 1972-1974 While on my first mission in Missouri, I met an old judge who transacted some of the legal business when the saints traded land in Missouri for land in Nauvoo. He told me of visiting David Whitmer, one of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon, in an attempt to obtain information about who owned land in Missouri, as the court house that held the records burned down. He told me of David Whitmer’s testimony concerning the Book of Mormon and the visit of the angel to the witnesses. I asked him if he believed this story. He said he had no reason to disbelieve it. He was once befriended by the Mormons when a boy. He never joined the church because his wife was prejudiced. But I received a second-hand testimony of David Whitmer. My wife and I have had a life of rich experiences but it has been hard at times. We have traveled to many of the church’s historical spots, such as Joseph Smith’s birthplace, his home in Palmyra and the Sacred Grove, and of course the hill Cumorah. We have attended the pageant there twice, have visited Adam-ondi-aham, Liberty Jail, Independence, Missouri and the temple site there, Nauvoo, and the Carthage Jail. Also we have visited Temple Square in the Salt Lake City and the Visitor’s Center there several times. We visited Springfield, Illinois and the historical spots of Abraham Lincoln. We have also visited Independence Square in Philadelphia, and the historical spots in New Jersey. We visited the dedication of the Idaho Falls and the Washington temples. We now have a nice little apartment here in East Brunswick. It is part of our daughter’s home with a new kitchen built on. We are enjoying it very much. We also spend several hours a week as assistant librarians in our new Genealogical Library. I failed to mention I was a salesman for Hi-Land Dairy in Murray, Utah and retired from there in 1970. I was there 14 years. Priesthood Genealogy I was ordained an Elder by my Father, Harry M. Payne, who was ordained a High Priest by President Wilford Woodruff, who was ordained an Apostle by President Brigham Young, who was ordained an Apostle by Oliver Cowdery, who was ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood by Peter, James, and John, who was ordained by the Savior. I was ordained a Patriarch by Apostle Richard L. Evans. Priesthood ordinations and dates mentioned above. LIFE SKETCH OF IVAN CARTER PAYNE AUTOBIOGRAPHY My parents, being polygamists, migrated to the Mormon colonies in Old Mexico in 1891 for the preservation of the family. I was born in Colonia Dublan, Chihuahua, Mexico, December 4, 1905. There I began school when six years of age. During the summer after my first school year in 1912, I remember the rebel forces invading the Mormon colonies. I recall listening to a battle fought between the Mexican Government troops and the rebel forces. I remember hearing the guns and seeing the smoke of the battle fought at Old Casas Grande, only a few miles from our home. The rebel forces won the battle and soon invaded Dublan. I remember seeing father in the living room of our home with his gun across his knees, guarding the family. So, in the summer of 1912, we came out of Mexico with the “Exodus” of the Mormon colonizers. We were obliged to ride in a boxcar of the train from Dublan to El Paso, Texas. All we could take with us is what we could carry in our arms, leaving our homes and belongings and all else we owned. We then found a temporary home in El Paso where we lived for about two months. We then went by train and moved to Aurora, Utah where father and mother had relatives. We lived in a little log cabin on the lower end of the property of Uncle George Payne for a while. I started my second year of school in Aurora but we soon moved to Richfield, Utah where father took a contract building a reservoir for the Richfield City water supply. Another year found us in Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico—first at La Mesa farming with my brother-in-law, Willard E. Jones. The next year we moved to Berino then to Anthony in the same state where father farmed with us boys. Here we remained for a couple of years. Alfalfa hay was the principle crop. The summer I was nine years of age father fixed the hay rake so I could reach the foot pedals and raked seventy-five acres of hay three times each cutting and we cut five crops that year. In the fall of 1915 we moved to Virden, New Mexico, with Duncan, Arizona being our post office where a group of saints from Old Mexico had purchased a large tract of land. It took us a week to cross the desert with covered wagons. This was quite an interesting experience for a boy nine years of age. Father purchased his share of this tract and we were farmers again. Half of the land be bought was in the rough (and I mean rough), covered with mesquite, cactus and cat-claw brush, full of washes and gullies, and the rockiest piece of land one could imagine. We hauled hundreds of loads of rock from this land. Much of my time the next few years was spent in clearing this land. I was rather small, weighing about 125 pounds, but I operated a four-horse Fresno, leveling land week after week. When I was seventeen, my brother Wilford married and moved away from the farm, leaving me as the oldest son at home. I had to assume the responsibility of the farm work as father wasn’t well at that time and was in bed for a while with stomach ulcers. About a year after landing in Virden, we built a one-room adobe home and a few years later we added to this and made a two-bedroom home. We had been living in a boarded-up tent and a wagon box covered with canvas. Father hired me out to T. Vernon Jones, a carpenter, to help build the new home. I had to put in three days’ work on the farm for one day on his as a carpenter. This rather annoyed me as I really put in a hard day’s work every day. While living in the one-room adobe house, I contracted pneumonia and nearly died. Several times during my life I have had accidents that could have easily taken my life, but I have been preserved. At Virden I completed grade school and the first three years of high school. Because of father’s illness and need of help, I stayed out of school considerably during my high school years. Also, I had rheumatic fever and was confined to bed for some time and was on crutches for a long time. This was another reason I missed a lot of school. My last year of high school was spent at Gila Junior College at Thatcher, Arizona. I lived with my brother Harry L. and family at Safford, Arizona. I graduated in the spring of 1926 and was called to a mission in the Central States Mission the fall of the same year. The next twenty-seven months were spent in Missouri. About a year of that time was spent in St. Louis where I saw many interesting things. Three months of my mission I spent in Hannibal, Missouri, the boyhood home of Mark Twain. I visited all of the points of interest connected with this interesting character. Six months of my mission were spent in the “sticks” of northern Missouri, far from any acquaintances and among very few members of the church. It was too cold, hard winters. We traveled without money during that time. While in St. Louis I attended, among other things, a World Series baseball game. This was in 1928 when the Yanks beat the Cardinals four games in a row. I saw Babe Ruth knock three homeruns in that game. I was released and returned from my mission in December, 1928. While in the mission field I met Elva Peck. After coming home I began writing to her. She lived in Murtaugh, Idaho. I decided I wanted her for my wife, so I wrote to her and told her I would like to come and get her if she would consent. She consented that I may come which I did and consented to be my wife. We were married by Brother George F. Richards in the Salt Lake Temple, February 20, 1929. We first lived in Virden for a year where I operated father’s farm. We then moved to Duncan, Arizona, where I was employed in Orson Merrell’s store as a clerk. It was there that our son Reed was born, March 17, 1930. Elva was not well and returned to Idaho, expecting to undergo an operation. A little later I followed her and she was operated on in Twin Falls, Idaho. Here we remained for two years and I worked on a farm for wages. We moved back to Virden and I again worked for Orson Merrell. Then in the fall of 1933 we moved to Thatcher, Arizona, where I attended Gila College. It was here that our daughter Ann was born November 6, 1933. Again, Elva was not well and I had to quit school and we took her to El Paso, Texas for an operation. While Elva was recuperating we lived with George Q. and Florence. After she was partially recovered we moved back to Idaho to be near Elva’s mother while she recuperated. In August we went to Shelley, Idaho on a visit and decided to remain there and work. So there we lived until the summer of 1949. I first worked in a “spud house” and then in a service station. I later worked as a caretaker of the Shelley Stake House and the Shelley Second Ward Chapel. A year later I went in partnership with my brother-in-law, Grant Butler, in the service station business. After a time there I again sold out and operated a tire shop for a while. I sold again and went into partnership with Wallace Jamison in the electrical business. Here I learned a lot about electrical business and became an apprentice electrician. During this time I was called as second counselor to Floyd G. Kelley, bishop of the Shelley Second Ward, then soon was called as first counselor which position I held for nine years. The bishopric was then dissolved and Elva and I were called as stake missionaries to the Lamanite people. We remained in this position until we left Shelley. On several occasions we preached to the Indians and visited them as they were there during the harvest season. One Indian chief, his wife and sister came to our home and ate with us. They were very grateful to us for our kindness to them. Two Mexican families to whom we had preached later joined the church. In the spring of 1949 we moved to Yuba City, California. We remained there during the summer, but not liking conditions, we moved to Salt Lake City in the fall of the same year. During the years of 1949-50 I worked for J. Henry Jones Co. doing electrical work. Just before Christmas in 1950 I was working, riveting metal boxes to steel posts, when a piece of steel flew from one of these boxes and, not wearing glasses, went into my eye. It penetrated my eyeball almost half way. It did not hurt but my vision was blurred and I knew I was in trouble. I didn’t bother to go home but went straight to the L.D.S. Hospital and was immediately operated on and had the piece of steel taken from my eyeball. I was in the hospital five weeks. I lost the sight of my eye. I still get a side vision out of it, so do get some use of it. At this time our son Reed was going on a mission. Our finances were not sufficient to send him. We had prayed about this and I had told the Lord that I was willing to make most any kind of sacrifice in order to send him. Then my accident happened and I was afraid that we could not send him, for here I was out of work and no prospects in sight as I was in the hospital. But to my surprise (although I knew that I was insured under Industrial Insurance) I was informed that my eye was considered a total loss and the insurance would pay me $6,000. Every cent of the hospital and doctor bills were also paid by the insurance. We arranged to take this sum in monthly payments which was more than enough to send Reed on his mission. It also put us on our feet financially for the time being. It was soon afterwards that I was offered a job in Roosevelt, Utah, as manager of the Farmers’ Cooperative Association, a gas and oil business along with a feed and fertilizer business for the farmers. We remained there for a year and it was one of the coldest winters in history. The temperature dropped to 30 to 40 degrees below zero. We had a most terrible time. The fuel oil coagulated; we couldn’t get the pumps to function right and everything went wrong with that temperature. During this time Elva worked at the J.C. Penney Co. Our daughter Ann graduated from the new Union High School that spring of 1952. That fall we decided to return to Salt Lake City. We had sold our home there and had to buy another or pay a high rate of income tax and we didn’t want to spend the rest of our lives in Roosevelt, although we enjoyed it there in spite of our difficulties. We returned to Salt Lake City in 1952. I was employed as electrician for Hansen Homes Inc. where I worked for about five years. While living in the Wells Stake, I was called as first counselor to Bishop Mathew Einsinger in the Wilson Ward. In 1954 we moved to Murray, Utah, and bought a basement home in the Murray Ninth Ward of the Murray Stake. Here I acted as General Secretary of the Senior Aaronic Priesthood program. After about a year we rented our home and moved back to Salt Lake City in the South Eighteenth Ward. We took charge of an apartment house there for a year, then moved back to our basement home in Murray. Here we remained until 1958. In 1958 we bought a little home at 21 Rose Circle in the Murray Eleventh Ward. We moved in the latter part of the week and on Sunday I was called as second counselor to Bishop Richard C. Howe. Bishop Howe soon moved from the ward and I was called as bishop of the Eleventh Ward in the Murray South Stake and was sustained February 9, 1958. I was a bishop for five and a half years. I was then called as a High Councilor and remained in that position for four and a half years. On November 24, 1968, the Murray West Stake was organized and I was called as patriarch of the new stake. We sold our home at 21 Rose Circle, Murray, and bought a brick home at 72 W. American Ave. in the same ward. We later bought a split level home at 131 W. 5750 South in the Murray 10th Ward. At this time I sold Watkins products (after retiring from the Hi-land Dairy). I did well at this and continued it until we were called on a mission in October 1972. I failed to mention that on March 1, 1957, I went to work for Hi-land Dairy Co. where I remained until retirement. So, on December 31, 1970, having reached retirement age, I retired from Hi-land Dairy where I was a salesman for the Home Delivery Department for almost fourteen years. I traveled over the state, building the delivery routes. I also spent some time in Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming. We are now enjoying our retirement. We spent six weeks in the eastern part of the United States and visited our daughter Ann and family in New Jersey. In our travels we visited many National Historical places and Church Historical places in the east and in Missouri. Then in the fall of 1971 we accompanied brother Wilford and wife to Old Mexico, visiting the Mormon colonies and Casas Grande. We also visited old Indian ruins there and also in Colorado. Our daughter, Ann, and her husband, William L. Park, live at East Brunswick, New Jersey, where William L. is employed as a professor of Agricultural Economics at Rutgers University. They have five lovely children. Our son Reed and wife, Ruth, live at Orem, Utah. Reed is employed as professor at Brigham Young University. He also has a private practice in Psychology in Provo, Utah. They have six lovely children. We were blessed with two children: Ivan Reed and Elva Ann. They have given us eleven grandchildren. Our lives have been rich in activity. Elva has recently been released as a Stake Missionary (1972). My education has not been as vast as I would have liked it to have been. I have attended school at Dublan, Mexico, Aurora and Richfield, Utah, La Mesa, Berino, Chamberino and Virden, New Mexico. I graduated from high school at Gila Junior College at Thatcher, Arizona. I later attended one year of college there. I also attended vocational school in Salt Lake City, studying electrical work. As I have already mentioned, we were called on a mission in 1972. Our home wasn’t just what we wanted, so we sold it, thinking to buy back when we returned from our mission. This was the beginning of inflation and we sold our home for $20,000. When we returned home it was worth $40,000. So we lost $20,000. We were called to the Montana Mission, but in the meantime Elva fell and hurt her knee. Arthritis set in and she went to a doctor and he suggested we go to a warm, low climate. He wrote to the missionary committee in Salt Lake and our mission was changed to the Alabama-Florida Mission. So in October 1972 we went to our mission field. Our headquarters were in Tallahassee, Florida. We were assigned to Perry, Florida where we remained for about six months. We were then transferred to Toxey, Alabama, near Butler, and about 100 miles north of Mobile. We were there for a time and were transferred to Hiland Home, Alabama. It was here that Elva took sick and we flew her to our daughter in East Brunswick, New Jersey. I drove up in the car. It took me two days. The doctors soon found her trouble and we returned to our mission, going to Live Oak, Florida, where we remained until we were released in May 1974. We returned home and went to St. George, Utah, thinking we would like to settle there. We found prices of homes so high, we felt that we could not obligate ourselves so heavily. The Californians had come up through that country and bought up a lot of property. Our daughter Ann and her husband offered to let us come back to New Jersey and retire with them. So we took the money that we had and built an apartment on part of their home. We lived there in East Brunswick for three years. I was activated as patriarch there and gave a lot of blessings. I was also High Priest group leader, Ward Chorister and Choir Director. I also worked in the genealogical branch library. I had the privilege of singing with a group at the dedication of the Washington Temple. My wife and I did a lot of endowment work there. In 1977 our son-in-law, William L. Park, who was professor at Rutgers University, was offered a job as Chairman of the Agricultural Economics Department at Brigham Young University. He accepted the job and we all moved to Orem, Utah in May 1977. My wife and I lived with Ann and Bill in their new home and helped finish it and the lawn and garden. We lived there until this was done, then moved to an apartment about a mile away at 635 North 340 East, in Orem. While living in the 57th Ward of the Orem East Stake, I was activated as patriarch again and gave quite a few blessings. When we moved to the 30th Ward of the Orem Central Stake, there were already two patriarchs with little to do—very few young people—so I am not activated at present. I am a Sunday school genealogy teacher at present and Elva is a Stake Relief Society teacher. While in East Brunswick I worked at the university turf farm for Dr. Funk. I enjoyed it very much. At the present time Elva and I are caring for a couple of dress shops at University Mall in Orem. It takes about two hours each morning. We go to the Provo Temple quite regularly. We have spent quite a bit of time at the genealogical library in Salt Lake. We are greatly enjoying living here in Orem near our posterity. Most of them are here. We were blessed with two children, Ivan Reed and Elva Ann. They are both very accomplished musicians on the organ and piano. At this writing on our 50th wedding anniversary we have eleven grandchildren. Reed has five boys and a girl. Ann has three boys and two girls. We also have eleven great-grandchildren. We are very proud of all of our family. Dean, Reed and Ruth’s son, is now serving a mission in Japan. Wayne, Ann and Bill’s son, is serving a mission in the Spanish speaking mission in Houston, Texas. At present two more of our grandsons have filled missions. Lynn, Reed’s son, went to France. David, Ann’s son went to Colombia, South America. Our son, Reed filled a mission in Canada. My occupations have been varied. I have been a farmer, store clerk, service station operator and manager of the Farmer’s Co-op in Roosevelt, Utah, electrician, wiring homes for Hansen Homes in Murray, Utah, salesman for the Home Delivery Department for Hi-land Dairy from which I retired December 31, 1970. I was also caretaker for the Shelley Stake House and Shelley Second Ward in Idaho for a year. I also operated an O.K. Tire Shop in Shelley for a time. I was a partner with Wallace Jamison in the electrical business. We now have a little job each morning cleaning a couple of dress shops in the University Mall in Orem. Our lives have been very colorful but not very profitable financially. My wife, Elva, has been a great source of strength to me during all of my activities in life and has been willing to go with me where I felt we should go. We have moved more than we should have done and of course can see many mistakes we have made. Elva’s health has been the object of some of our moves. Her health has not been the best but is now better than she has been for years. I, too, am enjoying good health. We have our “ups” and “downs,” incident to our age. But all in all we feel very fortunate and thankful unto our Heavenly Father for His many blessings unto us during the years and at the present time. We would still like to do more toward the service of the Lord. We are very thankful to the Lord for all of His blessings unto us. I forgot to put this in when I wrote, so I am adding this as an appendix. In 1971 my brother Wilford and his wife asked us to go to Old Mexico where we were born. We picked up our sister, Emma, and went down to the Mormon Colonies. Our old home is still standing and looks very good from the outside. We visited Colonia Dublan where we were born and went to church there. We then visited Colonia Juarez which was and is the stake headquarters for that area. Near Casas Grande, just five miles from our home there has been unearthed a large ancient American village. It was very interesting. Wid and I went to the old courthouse there and got our birth certificates in Spanish. The town is still there. There is a ward for the Americans and two wards for the Mexicans. School is held in the church house. It is supported by the church. Lessons are given in Spanish one-half of the day and in English the other half. All the churches in Mexico are now owned by the government. I may yet add to this history as time goes on, for we hope to live yet for a number of years and do a lot of things. We are enjoying one another very much and hope to accomplish a lot of things yet. Ivan C. Payne

I remember Grandpa always singing this song to us! My apologies to those who remember it differently: A grasshopper once had a game of tag With the crickets who lived near by. He stubbed his toe and over he went In the twinkling of an eye. The crickets leaned up against the fence And laughed 'til their sides were sore. The grasshopper said, "I'm going right home And I won't play with you any more!" The funny little grasshopper went right home Though he was not hurt by the fall And the gay little crickets went on with their game As if nothing had happened at all, at all, As if nothing had happened at all! Thanks for singing to us Grandpa! love, Adele

My brother, Lynn Reed Payne, and I went on a trip with Grandpa and Grandma Payne to Arizona. At one point we stopped at a Mexican restaurant. The food was great but the salsa that came with chips was so hot it burned my tongue. Lynn and I couldn't eat even a little bit on a chip. At the end of the meal Grandpa did something that really amazed me. He picked up a spoon and ate every drop of that salsa and enjoyed it! You go Grandpa!