Christopher Harrison Payne was an American clergyman, lawyer, and United States official.
Background
Christopher Harrison Payne was born on September 7, 1848 in Red Sulphur Springs, Monroe County, West Virginia, United States. His very intelligent mother was the daughter and had been the slave of James Ellison, who taught her to read and write. She in turn imparted the rudiments of education to her son, who was her only child. Her husband was Thomas Payne, a cattle drover, who died when the boy was two years old.
Education
From 1861 until 1864 Christopher Harrison Payne was compelled to serve as a body servant in the Confederate army. During the next two years he worked as a farm hand near Hinton, West Virginia. He next engaged in steamboating on the Ohio River but soon moved to Charleston, West Virginia. Here he attended night school until 1868, when he succeeded in passing the examination for a teacher's certificate in Summers County. The better to equip himself for his new calling he spent the academic year 1877 - 1878 at Richmond Institute (now Virginia Union University).
Career
Christopher Harrison Payne returned to his old home near Hinton and for a number of years taught school in the winter and did farm work in the summer time. In 1875 he became a convert to the Baptist faith, was granted a license to preach in the following year, and in 1877 was ordained. Lack of means then obliged him to return to West Virginia, where he engaged in missionary work. In 1880, however, he was called to the pastorate of the Moore Street Baptist Church in Richmond, and was able to complete his theological course, supporting his family and mother in the meantime.
Graduating in 1883, Christopher Harris was appointed missionary for the eastern division of Virginia. In April of the following year he became pastor of the First Baptist Church of Montgomery, West Virginia, and subsequently had charge of Baptist churches in Norfolk, Virginia, and Huntington, West Virginia. For the purpose of disseminating correct information about the achievements of the colored people he founded the West Virginia Enterprise. Later on he started The Pioneer at Montgomery, West Virginia. His third and last weekly he called the Mountain Eagle. His ventures in journalism led to his dabbling in politics. He became an active worker for the Republican party and was rewarded with the position of deputy collector of internal revenue at Charleston, West Virginia.
During Payne's incumbency of this post, 1889 to 1893, he studied law and was admitted to practice in West Virginia. In 1896 he was elected a member of the state legislature, being the first negro to be so honored. From 1898 till 1899 he was a United States internal revenue agent, and on May 1, 1903, was made United States consul at St. Thomas in the Danish West Indies. This position he continued to fill until the purchase of the islands by the United States in 1917. Thereafter he continued to reside in St. Thomas and served first as prosecuting attorney and then, until his death, as police judge. He died in the Virgin Islands on December 4, 1925, at the age of eighty.
Achievements
Religion
Christopher Harrison Payne was a member of Baptist church.
Politics
Christopher Harrison Payne was a member of Republican party.
Personality
Christopher Harrison Payne availed himself of every opportunity to improve his mind and was an eloquent preacher and speaker with a fine flow of language. He had a broad forehead and a straight nose and would easily have passed for a white man with dark complexion.
Connections
Christopher Harrison Payne was twice married and was survived by six children. His first wife, whom he married in 1866, was Delilah Ann Hargrove, and his second, A. G. Viney of Gallipolis, Ohio.