At a conference in Cincinnati, as a member of the Populist Party, he penned the first petition to congress in 1891 for free rural deliveries. Some remembered him for his inflexible honesty of purpose; while one of his grandchildren remembered him as the man who never did a lick of work.

John spent the last 10 years of his life as an invalid and died August 4, 1934.

photo at right: Jessie Payne age 12