Born March 8 1900 in La Salle, Illinois of Polish parents who came to this country from <?> Germany at early age. Educated in <?> school at La Salle, Ill. Completing sixth grade at age of thirteen. Both the Polish and English language being taught at the same time. Due to need of family assistance was forced to leave school at this time and seured employment as a nursemaid for a local <?> During my employement attended night school and a private teacher completing seventh-eight grade and one year of high school. During world war studied practical nursing and received a diploma. Took a state board examination. Terminated seven years of employment at the home of this banker and was admitted to a Chicago Hospital as student nurse. Terminated a year of nursing at this hospital due to health of mother taxed by the cares of a family of thirteen children of which ten are alive to-day. During these years and the age of sixteen I met my

husband and kept <?> with him until the age of twenty one. We were married at La Salle, Illinois. Moved to <?> Michigan where my husband was employed. Stayed eight months and then moved to Utica, Ill. Set up housekeeping here and during the year of 1923 secured employment at the Radium Dial Co., of Ottawa, Ill. Was employed there about eight months when my mother became ill and I terminated my employment to nurse her. After the recovery of my mother I remained in Utica, Ill. keeping house for myself and husband. In March of 1928 was blessed with a baby girl. The following year of 1929 I became ill. This illness continuing for a period of five years. During which time I was on the operating table six times. Doctors were puzzled by my strange illness and suspected everything from malaria fever to cancer. And I had numerous <?> One period lasting eighty-seven days 

During this illness I was treated by Dr. R.L. Elliston, Dr. L B Elliston Dr. Griswold who in conjuction with Dr. C. S. Cobb of the University of Chicago took me to <?> hospital at Ottawa, Ill. for a blood transfusion. I was taken from there to the Illinois Valley <?> Laboratories where I was sterilized. Later sent home and spent several months in bed. After hearing of the plight of the radium victims of Ottawa, Ill. I began to put two and two together, considering the puzzling plight of the doctors who could never tell me what was causing my trouble. I then came to the conclusion that I had radium poisoning. I believed and believe today that radium had attached the tissue of certain organs, became localized <in these?> organs, causing them to be destroyed through tumorous growths. I believe as this radium became localized a tumor formed there and each time the tumor was removed the deposit of radium was removed with the organ. 

I believe I was fortunate in the fact that the radium did not become localized in some of the bones of the body which cannot be removed as is the case with many of the girls that are dead and still alive. Although I am alive after five years of <hemorrhage?> operations and near death experience I am left with a weak heart and the necessity of taking daily by artificial means the substance which was manufactured by the destroyed organized which were removed. 

La Salle, Ill.

May 17, 1937

Clarence <Darrino?>

77 Washington St. 

Chicago, Ill. 

Dear Sir,

It is as a last resort that I turn to you for assistance or advice. I do not know whether or not you are aware of the fact or not but there exists in this country a group of young women where life is gradually ebbing away from radium poisoning <?> nine have passed away. 

To the great beyond and the tenth is fast approaching the grave. This condition is due to their employment at the Radium Dial Co. at Ottawa, Ill. One of the many <Dupont?> <allied?>

industries. Due to the fact that Radium poisoning does not become evident for a number of years after the inception of the poison these girls have received no compensation for their injury. They have turned to every legal agent and government department known to them without avail. Social complications are involved because due to their activity business interests, politicians and the clergy have been robed of the income derived from the wages of former employees. This company has been moved to N.Y. 

Mr. [Thomas] Donohue of Ottawa

who has vigorously opposed the operation of this plant in the above city has been persecuted and the controling interests have even tried to bring a charge of insanity against him. This many is also writing to you in a frantic effort to receive some advice or assistance. His wife is in a pitiable condition account of this poisoning. Part of her jaw bone has recently broke through the flesh and came <out?> into her mouth. These cases are to come before the industrial commision for a final hearing on May 25, 1937. And there

no attorney to represent these girls. Would it be possible for you to take up this case and do what you can for these women I am positive this case would be won with your assistance or legal advice. If it is not possible for you to do so. Could you refer this case to a good reputable social minded attorney whom you think would handle this. 

Hoping to hear from you soon. 

I remain

Hobart J. Payne

605 Todd Street

La Salle. 

June 1st, 1938.

Mrs. Pearl Payne

LaSalle, Illinois.

Dear Mrs. Payne:

Sorry I did not get a chance to write to you sooner, but we have been extremely busy. 

On Sunday, June 5th, we will be in Ottawa, Illinois, and will expect to see you at four o'clock P.M. at the home of Catherine Donohue. On Monday morning, it will be necessary for you to meet us at the Ottawa Hotel at ten o'clock. The case of Catherine Donohue will be heard at the City Hall of LaSalle, Ilinois on Monday afternoon. Best Wishes.

Yours truly,

Leonard J. Grossman

Your husband? Hope each are well. Tom is still at home with me. Work is very scarce in Ottawa. 

Write soon or come and see me dear. 

Lots of love,

Catherine

Spring Valley, Ill.

May 1, 1938

Dear Pearl,

Am in St. Mar<?> Hospital Spring Valley, can you come over and see me. I'm so lonesome away from home. It was a burned up <?> here and I don't know where I am at yet. Was so bad last <?>, the result is here I am, and I want to be home. You can realize how I feel dear don't you. Dr. wants me here. Tom wants a nurse at home, so past Mr. Grossman, I just don't know what to do. I suffer so much pain. Dr. wants to see what he can do to relieve it. 

How are you dear? I do hope all is well with you, come over if possible won't you as soon as you get this letter. I'm so lonesome and blue. 

Lots of Love,

Catherine

St. Mary's School

Grade 4 Pearl C. Payne

Homework

tell our cases are over hence under no circumstances anything until the cases are over. Hence believe <?> grieves me very much, but I cannot say anything. 

But I <beg?> you to put <yourself?> <in?> his hands and I promise he will do everything possible for you. I am sending you his address and at least write him and see what he says. Hoping this finds you all well and happy as ever. 

Sincerely, 

Pearl 

Dear Catherine,

We were very happy to hear from you and wish it was often. So sorry I <?> work we not have steady work its the same here just <?> streaks of work. But thank heavens our press<?> Ho<?> is working.

<Luecile and Johny?> were down last week looks they look fine and Marge is down for the last <two?> weeks visiting in Utica. Your Mother, <Henny?>, Marge and baby had supper with us the other day. Your Father couldn't due to waking <?>. They all look fine and feel pretty well. Your Dad has periods of <?> which bothers him but he manages to work and keep going. <Regards?> the Radium Case Catherine I am very sorry but Mr. Grossman made just <?> not to reveal a thing about 

La Salle, Ill.

June 23, 1938.

Miss Catherine O'Donnell

1817 N. Columbus Street

Ottawa, Illinois. 

My Dear Catherine:

How very good and kind you are to send me the medal. I than you gratefully for it and your sweet instructions, and rest assured that I am <carring?> them <not?>.

I agree with you that miracles do happen even in this day and age. I firmely believe that prayers is all that brought me thru five years of continual doctoring, six operations and nine trips in all to the hospital. I feel mighty grateful to God for the health I have

even <?> I will have to take medicine the rest of my life after all that and I will hope and pray that it will continue.

Yours with best wishes and kindest regards.

Sincerely,

Pearl Payne

Seneca, Ill.

July 18, 1938

Dearl Pearl,

Was so glad to get your letter, and thanks so much for looking up the information on trains and bus - It's much cheaper by bus, so if its O.K. with you we will go Friday July 22nd in the morning the one that leaves La Salle 9:00, and the bus will reach Seneca 9:48 a.m. - we'll be there sure. 

I stopped in to see Catherine Saturday. Tom was asleep, so we couldn't ask him about going to Chicago, but Catherine said she would tell him and he would let us know. But I'm going Friday anyway whether Tom goes or not because I don't think we should it delay it any longer do you? Catherine had a bad spell the day before, this is on Friday and had to have the Docotr, but she was sitting up eating her lunch, and she had on the pretty gown you gave her. She did look nice in it. Poor child. My heart goes out to her. 

I'm real tired to-day after our Reunion

yesterday. There was lots of cleaning to do to-day and I also washed clothes - and of course it did have to rain, so there was that much more to track in, but we did have a lovely time.

Well Pearl, <?> is going to town to mail this and I guess he's about ready to leave. Will meet you Friday morning on the Bus at Seneca at 9:48am.

With best wishes to you and your family

Sincerely,

Olive <Witl?>

My Dear Pearl,

It has indeed been a long time since I have heard or seen any of you girls, that is seems like writing to a stranger. I only wish we lived near one another. I have so much to say one can not give it all on paper.

As to my health, I am still a cripple. As you remember, I was to take the X-Ray  treatments in <?>, well I took thirty of them and it sure failed to give me any relief, my hip is very bad Pearl, it is all

I can do to get around at all. I suffer so much pain that at times I feel as if life was pretty hard to bear.

Had a letter from Charlotte Purcell in Chicago. Her husband was over to see Grossman and he said he was trying to get something for us but for God's sake to get <?> doctor's statement, I have written my doctor for one and no reply came back. I don't know Pearl what is to be done. I only wish you folk's could come up and see us before the 10th. As for 

details their are none. We have not heard from Grossman our self, and I can't understand. Maybe he wants more money. Tom is not working now or I would call him long distance and find out if is coming down the 10th. seems funny he has not written doesn't it?

How are you all?

Hope your husband is lucky in having work. it makes it bad around Xmas, but one musn't complain. If you can drive up before the 10th I would be glad. Best regards to 

you all from Thomas and I. Hoping to see you soon.

Love, Catherine

La Salle, Ill.

Feb. 23, 1938.

Leonard Grossman

134 North La Salle St.

Chgo. Ill.

Dear Mr. Grossman:

Sensing your humanitarian zeal for helping those on the lower rungs of life's ladder. And spurred by the many <?> and statements of approval from your efforts. It has occured to me as well as the other participants in the Radium Dial suit. That you use your great humanitarian instinct to forge the beginning of a society whereby those - of which there must be thousands - could band together, secure legal aid of a very competent nature and in general use our organized pressure to simplify, promote

and improve the laws relative to those who are maimed, and the recipients of ill health due to occupational hazards.

At a great sacrifice you have continued daily to lay other engagements aside to formulate the great mass of information necessary to properly present these cases to the courts of our land. No less a compliment can also be paid to the efforts of your loyal secretary. And your wife who has sacrificed I am sure your association at times when you otherwise should have been at home.

Hoping this letter will be another stepping stone for your grateful efforts and humanitarian -efforts- idealism I choose to remain,

A greatful client

Pearl C. Payne.

On or about September 1923 I secured employment at the Radium Dial Co. of Ottawa, Illinois. I was trained in the regular technique of applying radium pain to clock dials. In the application of the paint we were taught to keep the brushes pointed by placing them between the lips. I continued in the employ of this company about eight months. I then terminated my employment and from then on I continued to live in my own home and perform the duties of a housewife. Up until the year 1929 I had been in perfect health. During the year of 1929 I began to feel ill and got to the point where I staggerd when I walked and had to be assisted up and down stairs. I consulted Dr. <?> L. Elliston then of La Salle, Ill. But who has since moved from this <?> placed me in the hospital and treated me for about three weeks.

I was sick the greater part of the year 1929. In fact never became normal during that year. I had pains in.

in back and abdomen  throughout the full of 1929. During which time the doctor was urging me to submit to an operation. About Jan. 3, 1930, I entered the Peoples Hospital of Peru <?> where Drs. L.B. and R.L. Elliston performed an extensive abdominal operation among other work performed of that time a tumor was removed from the abdominal cavity. Three days after the operation the partoid glands of the jaws of my face became affected. My head become swollen to twice its normal size. This condition persisted for about two months. At which time a head specialist was called in and he made an incision on the inside of each ear for drainage. The doctors then made an incision on the outside behind each ear and this healed so fast it had to be opened up every few days. During this time my eyes became infected and an eye doctor had to be called in to treat the eyes. After two months in the hospital I was released and one side of my face was paralyzed. Since that time

the paralysis left. From that time on I was in poor health. In Dec. 1931 I was bedridden with a persistent uterine hemmorhage for several weeks. And a <?> of the womb was performed. I returned home from the hospital and was continually in poor health. In June 1932 I again submitted to an abdominal surgical operation. Another tumor was removed and a <?> of the womb performed. 

Again about Dec. 1932 a uterine hemmorhage started and continued for several weeks. The Dr. was perplexed and said I must have been pregnant and had a miscarriage. I again returned to the hospital and Dr. performed another <?> on the womb. The Dr. persisting in the argument each time that I had been pregnant and possibly a miss-carriage had taken place. I knew then it was not so. Because nothing had been done to cause me to be pregnant. I returned from the hospital in poor health and noticed that

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normal. The doctor gave me a course of treatment for malaria fever with no results. At the time he had a <blood count?> made and found I was in a badly anemic condition. I began to take a highly concentrated food for this condition. About <?> of 1933 I noticed that the hemmorhages were starting, this persisted for several weeks. I notified my doctor and he advised the removal of the uterus. I regused and lay in bed for several days debating what to do. At this time, I called in Dr. L. B. Griswold of Utica, Ill. I gave him my history and he said I was in no condition to have an operation and that it might be fatal. It was he said impossible to make an examination until the hemmorhage was reduced. He placed me in bed and for several weeks tried to stop the hemmorhaging with internal medicines. He succeeded in reducing long enough to make an examination. After which time the

hemmorhaging continued to get worse. In fact lasted eighty-seven days. He called in Dr. C. S. Capp of the University of Chicago who was substituting for Dr. Petitt of Ottawa who was in Europe at that time. Dr. Capp rushed me to Ryburn <?> Hospital in Ottawa, Illinois. Believing I would have to have a blood transfusion. But instead gave me a course of Xray treatments. This was about July 1933. I was there about seven days, and then sent home to bed hoping the hemmorhaging would cease. But it continued. About the latter part of July 1933 I was taken to the Illinois Valley <?> Laboratory at Ottawa, Illinois. I was put under an anesthetic there and completely sterilized with Xray and radium rays. After I was brought home to bed and in a few weeks the hemmorhage ceased. I <remained?> in bed several months and was attacked by several heart and 

ailments. After recalling the perplexities of the doctors in my past illness and the statement of them - Quote - That I belong to a class of women of which the medical profession does not know the reason for their illness.

I then, began at this time, to become of the firm opinion that my illness was due to radium poisoning. There may be some discrepancy in the dates as I have set down, but serves to show that I have reason to believe that compensation is due me account of illness contracted from previous employment from the Radium Dial Co. of Ottawa, Ill. There is something else I wish to state, due to the fact that I have had nursing experience. I know that neither myself or husband, has no history of venereal disease. Also in my married life I never in any way, ever tried, or prevented conception. Hence there was no cause for hemmorhages.