Background
Henry Clay Payne was born on November 23, 1843 in Ashfield, Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. He was a son of Orrin and Eliza (Ames) Payne.
railroad executive postmaster-general
Henry Clay Payne was born on November 23, 1843 in Ashfield, Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. He was a son of Orrin and Eliza (Ames) Payne.
Henry Clay Payne was educated in the schools in Ashfield and at the Shelburne Falls academy from which he graduated in 1859.
After a short business experience in Northampton, Massachussets, and after being rejected as a soldier, Henry Clay Payne moved to Milwaukee, Wis. , in 1863. Here he entered the dry-goods house of Sherwin, Nowell & Pratt, and served as cashier until 1867. He then entered the insurance business in which he achieved considerable success. His first appearance in politics was in 1872, in the Grant-Greeley campaign, when he organized the Young Men's Republican Club, serving as its first secretary and later as chairman. In 1876 he was appointed postmaster of Milwaukee by President Grant and held that position for ten years, during which time he brought the office to a high state of efficiency, paying especial attention to the money-order branch through which he was able to serve the large foreign-born population of the city. When the Democrats assumed control of the national government in 1885 Payne left the post office and engaged in a number of business enterprises, being especially interested in the development of local public utilities.
Henry Clay Payne was made vice-president of the Wisconsin Telephone Company in 1886 and president three years later. In the same year, 1889, he became interested in the possibility of consolidating the street railways of Milwaukee. In 1890, when the Cream City Railroad Company and the Milwaukee City Railroad were merged, becoming the Milwaukee Street Railway Company, Henry Villard of New York was made president and Payne vice-president and general manager. From 1892 to 1895 Payne acted as president of the company. By the latter year the consolidation of the city lines was complete and the company had also absorbed the electric lighting companies of the city. In 1896, however, the company was in financial straits. Payne was named receiver and then was made vice-president of the reorganized Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Company. Shortly after the reorganization, a serious strike broke out among the employees of the company. Payne was criticized for his unyielding attitude toward the workmen, and although the strike was broken, public sympathy was with the strikers. Payne also organized the Milwaukee Light, Heat and Traction Company, which built and operated the suburban electric lines running out of Milwaukee, and was president of the Fox River Electric Railway Company, an interurban electric system.
In 1890 Henry Clay Payne was elected president of the Milwaukee & Northern Railroad Company but resigned in 1893 when the road was consolidated with the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul. When the Northern Pacific Railroad failed he was appointed one of the receivers and served from 1893 to 1895. From 1894 to 1896 he was president of the Chicago & Calumet Terminal Railway. Meantime he had continued his services in the Republican party organization. He was secretary and chairman of the Republican county committee of Milwaukee County and of the Republican State Central Committee after 1872, and a member of the Republican National Committee from 1880 until his death in 1904.
In 1888 and 1892 Henry Clay Payne served as delegate to the Republican National Convention, and during the McKinley-Bryan campaign of 1896 he was in charge of the western headquarters in Chicago. Four years later he worked successfully to have Roosevelt nominated as vice-president of the ticket with McKinley. When Roosevelt became president the following year he repaid his political debt by appointing Payne postmaster-general in January 1902. Before Henry Clay Payne had been in office three years Payne died suddenly in Washington on October 4, 1904.
Quotations: "It is better to fall short of a high mark than to reach a low one. "
On October 15, 1869 Henry Clay Payne had married Lydia W. Van Dyke, daughter of Richard and Mary (Thomas) Van Dyke of Mount Holly, New Jersey.
