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TTTE OMAHA SUNDAY BEE: DECEMBER 24. 1916.
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Interesting History of Omaha
Firm's Accomplishments
A vast business that dealf wilh.big affairs ia a big way is the Payne Investment
. Company. - '' " ' . ' '
It has a history of twenty-five Vears of achievement, dating from its organiza
tion, January 1, 1801, by George H. Payne, who has been its president ever since.
Mr. Payne has today arrived only at his fifty-second year. Born in Galesburg,
Illinois, he moved to Fort Dodge, la., in his 'teens and came to Omaha in 1885. He
is a self -made man of the best type. His first position here was 'carrying water for a
sewer gang working on West Q street, near the Armour Packing Company plant Then
he took a )ob as clerk with the 0. F. Davis Company at $35 a month, and slept in the
rear office.. ..' ''., :
The big business of his big company is the sale of lands in big traots. They take
prospective buyers in special trains half across the continent. They have conducted
big land sales in all parts of the country, in New York, in California, ffr Louisiana,
and in the intervening states. -
The company's first large land colonization, project was 118,000 acres for the
Jate Judge Woolworth, near Pine Bluff, Wyoming. It also handled about 500 qiiorter
sections in northwestern Nebraska. This was in the early 90'
Office of Pays,. Inv.ttm.at Company, Omaha National Bank Building.
the transfer of a very large-number of houses and lots in Omaha from one owner
to another, and has lately completed the successful sale of Creighton Park.
The company's rental department is well equipped and efficient.
Its loan department is a big business in itself. One client, who lives in New
Hampshire, has purchased more than $1,000,000 worth of securities and has never
lost a cent of interest or principal nor had a foreclosure.
Mr. Payne, aside from his vast business activities, has been especially' active in
building up the House of Hope. He is on the Public Affairs committee of the Com
mercial club, and is a charter member of the University club.
One of the secrets of Mr. Payne's success is his.skill in surrounding himself with
the right kind of men to carry out his plans. They have been picked from various lines
of work, in which they had proved their ability to succeed, work fitting each of them
to play a particular part in the upbuilding of the company's business.
K. L. Hall was formerly county Clerk of Frontier County. '"
R. A. Walgamot was a prosperous merchant in central Nebraska before he be
came connected with the firm. - '
M.. T. Martin, a Creighton University man, has been with the company twelve
years. :.
R. F. Payne, who is following in the footsteps of his father, studied at Illinois
University. . . - . - - '
O. C. Holmes is a man of long experience as a security salesman.
R. Stephenson was formerly cashier of a prominent insurance company.
; . W. R. Gibson was formerly a Dodge County business man.
F. B. Heintze is a native Omahan.
.f. These men, as well as the eight traveling men the company keeps constantly on
the road, have played a big part in helping Mr. Payne materialize his dreams of big
business. , '
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Land buy.ra at the Lake Charles, La.,
' It then began to campaign the entire Platte Valley from Central City west, open
ing an office in North Platte and maintaining it for ten years. During that time, it
. handled land on an extensive scale at Sidney and disposed of practically all of the
extensive holdings of the late W. A. Taxton, including his big alfalfa farms at Hr
, shey and his big hay and cattle ranch near Keystone.
! Learning of tho Intended extension of th J Union Pacific Railway from Callaway
to Gandy, it sold about 20.CC0 acres ot the Garfield table at that time. This land m
. a very little whllo doubled and trebled In value. ; ' .;- , -
The company also developed an extensive Swedish colony at Maxwell, Neb.,
in tha Platto Volley. It disposed of the b! holdings of Rube Liseo, the big ranches at
Lisco, Neb., tn the North Piatt. Valley, i,- '
It developed tha Scottsbluff country, selling between .40,000 and 50,000 acres"
of irrigated land, the values of which nave increased from $50 to $60 an acre to
$150 and $'J00 an ncre. It was largely InstrumenfW in securing the first beet sugar
factory at Gcottsbluffr : Where foimerly tlAo were only five or ten houses in a
stretch of fir ty miles In that country, l-.ere Is now a residence practically on every
quarter section. ..- . .. ., c
The Payne Investment Company sold approximately a million 'Hollars' worth of
irrigation land at Lamar, Colo., in the Arkansas Valley for . an eastern insurance
.' company. . . - . -i ,-.
It sold the extensive holdings of Spragu. and Oxnard, the sugar kings, in
Louisiana.
It sold ."the finest farm' in the world," "Brookmont," at Odebolt, Sac County,
towa, at from $125 to $186 an acre, land which is worth $200 an acre today.'
i It sold tmoroved farnu-m Lyon County, Minnesota, near Marshall.
At Central City, it conducted a sale of 5,000 acres in five days for the late T. B. -,
Hord and his son, Ileber Ilord. On this deal the contract was good for a year, but the
'i entire tract was cleaned up within two weeks from the date of the contract. Seventy
.. automobiles wore In line on the trip through the country.
The company sold thirty improved farms for the King Estate at Campbell, Minn..
' It handled the 18,000-acre Patterson Colony at Patterson, Cat., selling a little
over $2,500,000 worth of land in eighteen months. , . .
It took up the sale of New York farms and sold fifty improved properties in a
1 year and a half.' x -
Last fall it handled the" Hallenbeck Estate farm of I 800 acres at Millard,' one -section
of which was bought by B. IT. Robison of Omaha. - - ,
At the present time this company is conducting an extensive sele in Louisiana,
marketing 40,000 acres near the town, of Lake Charles. Last week's excursion re
.suited in the sale of over L200 acres. ' f
Beside this enormous Uind business, the Pa.wi" Investment Company conducts a
city real estate department, handling all kinds of city property.' j
It developed Avondale Park, near Twenty-seventh and .Webster streats; Bemis
Park; Keystone Park, west of Benson, a tract of. 600 acres purchased from i.he late
W. A. Paxton. It has built between 200 and 800 houses in Omaha.and crerted the
first four-apartment houses here, the Normnndio, Albion, Sherman md Winona.
It also built the first California type burigalow, irt Dundee. It b&3 actsd as agent in
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A party of Und buyers at Scottsbluff irrigation project
"lTl,f"1tMai'flhtfY'4MtiM
Seventy automobile! crri4 th. prty to look ov.r th. P.ya.
lnmm.nt Lands around Cntr.l City.1
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A wload of proipactiv. purenuar .nrant. to North PUtt.
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valley lands.
Lamar, Colorado -B..t sugar factory) train load ef land buy.ra Mnt to
Lamar by th. P.ya. JaVMlownt Company. :
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Mora than fifty improved farms were told by this company in N.w York .tat.
rl'. msiTmiii. 1, , Y. 1 ...
Ov.r $2,000,000.00 worth of California land sold by th.
. , Payn. Investment Company. '
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